Recently, while I was flipping through the financial results presentation slides of two REITs, namely CapitalMall Trust and Frasers Commercial Trust, I came across this company called “WeWork” that seem to take up quite a substantial square feet of office space in these two REITs.
WeWork Singapore has committed to lease around 28,700 square feet of space at one of China Square Central’s heritage shophouse blocks. The company had leased 40,000 square feet of office space across two floors of Funan’s North Office Block, becoming Funan’s first office tenant.
Being curious, I looked up the term “WeWork”. This is what I found
WeWork is an American startup company founded in 2010 that provides shared workspace across various countries. Recently, they have acquired Singapore based company Spacemob.
Based on my findings, WeWork has a current valuation of US$20 billion. Wow! That sounds like a strong and robust tenant for both of these two REITs I am holding.
It’s not just a tenant.
WeWork’s future relationship to the REITS is like a potential Grab vs Comfort.
WeWork is disruptor to conventional office developers – it is providing space as a service
Just like Grab, it need not be asset lite. It can also own the property if required (just like Grab has its own cars under its own car rental company).