Published in Business Times on October 15, 2020

By Mak Yuen Teen and Chew Yi Hong

In our article “A refined ‘GIFT’ for a changed world” (The Business Times, July 21), we discussed many of the refinements and changes we intended to make to the Governance Index For Trusts (GIFT) 2020.

Given that the sector has matured and its risk profile is changing, it is timely to raise the bar, with less focus on pure disclosures and meeting minimum standards, and more on substance. It is important that the good work that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Singapore Exchange (SGX) have done in building up the sector is not undermined by cases such as Eagle Hospitality Trust (EHT).

Who’s included

For this fourth edition of GIFT, 45 real estate investment trusts (Reits) and business trusts (BTs) listed on SGX were assessed, compared to 46 last year.

Five trusts were excluded – RHT Health Trust because it is a cash trust; EHT because it is suspended with its annual report issued only after the cut-off date; and three newly-listed trusts which have not yet published their annual report by the cut-off date (Elite Commercial Trust, Lendlease Global Commercial Reit and United Hampshire US Reit).

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  • Mak Yuen Teen is an associate professor of accounting at the NUS Business School, where he specialises in corporate governance. Chew Yi Hong is an active investor and researcher in corporate governance.
  • GIFT is supported by the Singapore Exchange. MoneySense, the national financial education programme, provides a link to GIFT to help investors assess if they are comfortable with the corporate governance of Reits.
    The full GIFT report and the scoring guidelines are available at www.governanceforstakeholders.com