27 Mar 2020
SINGAPORE, 27 March 2020
Frasers Property Retail and Frasers Centrepoint Trust are providing additional rental rebates amounting to S$45 million for tenants to help ease the business impact of COVID-19. This comes as an extension of the Tenant Support Package announced on 26 February 2020. In addition to rental rebates, tenants will receive the full property tax rebates announced in the Government’s Resilience Budget and cash security deposits will also be released to offset one month’s worth of rental payments.
As part of the extended Tenant Support Package, Frasers Property Retail will match the property tax rebates announced in the Resilience Budget, amounting to an additional S$45 million in rental rebates for tenants. These rental rebates will be disbursed to tenants in a targeted manner, prioritised by individual needs and circumstances. Combining the rental rebates, property tax rebates and offsetting of cash security deposit, all tenants will get some form of relief from rental payments for the months of April and May.
As part of the Tenant Support Package, a one-month rental waiver will be granted to all entertainment venues, enrichment centres and tuition centres which are affected by the Government-imposed closures announced on 24 March 2020.
Mr Low Chee Wah, Chief Executive Officer of Frasers Property Retail, said: “As the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on our businesses and communities continues to unfold, we recognise the need for us to rally together to help one another. Given the continued challenges our tenants are facing, as well as the trades affected by the enforced closures, we have put together an additional support package to provide S$45 million in rental rebates to help our tenants improve their liquidity for the coming months. While we ensure everyone is supported, the rental rebates will be given out in a measured and impactful manner to help those most in need. Tenants who are most impacted will have their rental payments fully offset for the months of April and May from the combined relief measures. This will hopefully allow them to focus on other operational challenges they might be facing. We will continue to work closely with our tenant community and together overcome this trying period.”
Mr Richard Ng, Chief Executive Officer, Frasers Centrepoint Asset Management Ltd, the manager of Frasers Centrepoint Trust said: “We stand firmly behind our tenants during this difficult period in dealing with the challenges arising from COVID-19. We are doing our best to help our tenants cope with their immediate cashflow issues, to boost sales and to extend as much flexibility as we can to accommodate their needs.”
The extended Tenant Support Package will apply to tenants across Frasers Property Group’s combined retail portfolio of malls1 in Singapore, including retail properties held under Frasers Centrepoint Trust as well as retail properties managed by AsiaMalls Management Pte. Ltd.2
1The 14 malls in Frasers Property Retail’s portfolio include Anchorpoint, Bedok Point, Causeway Point, Changi City Point, Eastpoint Mall, Northpoint City, The Centrepoint, YewTee Point and Waterway Point, as well as the five malls under AsiaMalls Management Pte. Ltd.’s portfolio namely Century Square, Hougang Mall, Tiong Bahru Plaza, Tampines 1 and White Sands. The component on rental rebate for Eastpoint Mall will differ as it is a third-party owned mall.
2Frasers Property Retail announced the acquisition of AsiaMalls Management Pte. Ltd. on 10 February 2020.