MREIT [MREIT 13.40, up, -0.9%; 64% avgVol] [link] said it was eyeing the infusion of mall and retail assets in a bid to double its portfolio to 1 million square meters of gross leasable area (GLA) by 2027. In a disclosure to the Exchange on 29 September 2025, the REIT unit of Megaworld said the move aims to diversify its holdings and expand its revenue base by complementing its high-occupancy office assets with mall leasing tied to consumer spending. This will enable MREIT to create a “resilient and relevant portfolio” in the years ahead, Chairman Kevin Tan said. MREIT’s current portfolio covers MEG’s townships such as Eastwood City, McKinley Hill, McKinley West, Iloilo Business Park, and Davao Park District. Meanwhile, MEG still has about 1 million sqm of office GLA and 500,000 sqm of retail GLA that could be folded into MREIT over time.
MB bottom-line: It was almost a year ago that MREIT first talked about diversifying its portfolio with some retail assets, and while shareholders would obviously prefer to have had this deal completed in the first half of the year, late is better than never. Unfortunately for MREIT holders, nothing has changed. At its heart, this is just a press release that reiterates MREIT’s interest in acquiring retail assets. There’s no approved deal, and in fact, just more hype about MEG’s massive bag of commercial real estate and half-massive portfolio of mall assets. I’m not an MREIT shareholder, but if I were, I’d obviously prefer my management team to spend the REIT’s value on acquiring high-value mall assets as opposed to a massive batch of commercial office buildings amid the long-term decline of the commercial sector. MREIT shareholders are basically flat (excluding dividends) in terms of stock price action since that original announcement was made, far below its non-Villar office/mall combo rivals like AREIT (+8% since November 2024) and RCR (+26% since November 2024).
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