JUL 2019 OCT 2019 MAPPINGA PUBLICATION BY MAPLETREE INSIDE TREND Tier 2 cities take centrestage in China’s residential property market INSIDER A long-serving staff shares his work motivation SPACES Discover Global Infocity Park Chennai’s appeal PAY IT FORWARD Giving back to our communities DATA SURGE Collect, store, process, distribute and access big data in a safe and secured space Cover photo Mapletree Sunview 1 is a six-storey build- to-suit data centre with a gross floor area of about 22,500 sqm. The purpose-built data centre was completed on 13 July 2018. Mapletree Editorial Wan Kwong Weng Heng Sue Yuan About Mapletree Pyrena Chu Mapletree is a leading real estate development, investment, Xabryna Kek capital and property management company headquartered in Singapore. Its strategic focus is to invest in markets and real Publishing Consultant estate sectors with good growth potential. By combining its key strengths, the Group has established a track record of award-winning projects, and delivers consistent and high returns across real estate asset classes. Mapletree currently manages Senior Editor Ronald Rajan four Singapore-listed real estate investment trusts (REITs) and Editor Dennis Yin six private equity real estate funds, which hold a diverse portfolio Assistant Editor Fairoza Mansor of assets in Asia Pacific, Europe, the United Kingdom (UK) and Senior Writer Wanda Tan the United States (US). As at 31 March 2019, Mapletree owns Senior Business and manages S$55.7 billion of office, retail, logistics, industrial, Relationship Manager Michele Kho residential and lodging properties. The Group’s assets are Contributors Francis Kan, Keenan Pereira, located across 12 markets globally, namely Singapore, Australia, Pamela Quek China, Europe, Hong Kong SAR, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, the UK, the US and Vietnam. To support its MCI (P) 075/09/2018 global operations, Mapletree has established an extensive Printed by KHL Printing network of offices in these countries. For more information, please visit www.mapletree.com.sg. 004791 About Mapping Published by Mapletree, Mapping is a thrice-yearly magazine Copyright © 2019 Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd. focused on real estate trends and the latest developments All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be within the organisation. If you have any suggestions on reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or transmitted, Mapping, or are a Mapletree tenant who would like to be in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, featured, drop us a note at [email protected]. photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior All information is correct at time of printing. written permission of the publishers. WELCOME NOTE 02 MAKING ROOM 03 FOR BIG DATA A booming digital economy is increasing the demand for data centres. INSIDER 10 A long-serving staff shares his appreciation for the company. 03 10 TREND 12 Mapletree’s residential developments in China are benefitting from the country’s robust property market. SPACES 16 Global Infocity Park Chennai stands out with its excellent connectivity and eco-friendly features. DESTINATION 18 Make Oakwood your preferred accommodation when you visit 12 the United States. BULLETIN 23 Happenings and new openings within the Mapletree Group. NETWORK 31 Mapletree’s presence worldwide. PAY IT FORWARD 32 Giving back to the community. SPACE FOR RENT 35 Need a space for your business? Find it here. 23 18 Contents s the demand for cloud- Over at the housing market in company for close to five decades. based storage, data creation dominant economic powerhouse He first began his career at the A and the Internet of Things China, we cast a spotlight on home former Port of Singapore Authority grow exponentially, more companies properties in Tier 2 cities such as (PSA), before being seconded are opting to store their data and Foshan and Ningbo. Residential to Mapletree in 2000. Today, the information at an off-site property — property prices are slated to rise this 67-year-old grandfather handles also known as a data centre. Doing year, as the country’s government property management work for so improves efficiency and lowers urges banks to raise lending and Mapletree Logistics Trust’s properties companies’ power costs, as they no lower interest rates for new-home in Malaysia. More highlights of his longer need to confine their data mortgages. Coupled with a relaxation career are on page 10. servers to a restricted area in the of home purchase restrictions and And finally, if you are looking office building. the expectation of higher income for an extended stay in the US, why Noticing the growing interest growth, the residential sector in China not check out two of Mapletree’s in data centres, Mapletree in 2007 is poised to remain buoyant. Flip to latest acquisitions in Chicago and acquired its first data centre in page 12 and find out why Mapletree’s Arlington? Oakwood Chicago Singapore — making it one of the China residential properties have River North is located in the earliest investors in the local data benefitted from a wave of optimism heart of Chicago’s River North centre market. Since then, the Group sweeping the market. neighbourhood, while Oakwood has successfully expanded its presence In March this year, Mapletree Arlington is located in Northern in this sector through acquisitions concluded its second Five-Year Plan Virginia’s bustling Rosslyn district. and developments of data centres in and achieved another record net profit Soak in the sights, and enjoy Singapore and the United States (US). of S$2.16 billion for Financial Year convenience and comfort at the same Read how data centres are becoming 2018/2019. Attesting to the strong time. Head over to the Destination an indispensable part of the digital capabilities of Mapletree’s execution section on page 18 for more travel economy in this issue’s cover story of its business model, the Group tips in the Land of Liberty. on page 3. registered a Return on Equity1 (ROE) of We hope you enjoy this issue 15.3 per cent and Return on Invested of Mapping, which also covers a Equity2 (ROIE) of 10.4 per cent. In plethora of dining options at VivoCity addition, Mapletree’s total owned and and HarbourFront Centre, Singapore, managed assets under management as well as our latest Corporate Social rose to S$55.7 billion — an increase Responsibility efforts. For feedback of 20.3 per cent from a year ago. or enquiries, drop us an email at For more details on the outstanding [email protected]. financial results, turn over to page 30. This issue, we also speak to 1 ROE denotes return on equity and is computed based long-serving Mapletree staff Mr Yu on PATMI attributable to equity holders of the Company Lai Bee, who has been with the over shareholder’s funds. 2 ROIE computed based on Operational PATMI (less profit attributable to perpetual securities) over the Group’s equity from shareholder adjusted for unrealised revaluation gains or losses and The increasing spatial requirements for the such other non-cash flow and non-operating items data storage sector presents opportunities for including mark-to-market fair value adjustments and real estate developers such as Mapletree. negative goodwill. note Welcome COVER STORY MAKING ROOM FOR BIG DATA The global data centre market is growing rapidly in tandem with the digital economy. Online activities including the uploading and streaming of videos or sending emails are contributing to a signi cant amount of data generated daily. Real estate developers like Mapletree are in the thick of the action to offer ideal investment opportunities to companies and conglomerates. Photo: Getty Images Photo: Getty 3 03-09 Data Centres V6.indd 3 7/9/19 2:41 PM COVER STORY 19 Tai Seng Drive is a six-storey Hi-Tech Building used by StarHub Limited to house its data centre operations. According to leading market research firm 451 Research, the worldwide data centre space sector is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 5.2 per cent (by net operational square feet) from 2017 to 2022 (forecast). Several factors are behind the rising demand for data centre real estate: • Growing data creation and storage. This is driven by the increased take-up of digital technologies among businesses and consumers. • Proliferation of the Internet of Things. The growth of Internet-connected devices will generate large quantities of data to be processed and analysed in real time, which will increase the workloads of data centres. ONE OF THE BIGGEST FORCES SHAPING st the 21 century is the unprecedented explosion of • Increasing demand for cloud-based storage. data. Conducting an Internet search, replying to More businesses and consumers are adopting cloud emails, shopping online, uploading and streaming services to address their need for cost-effective, videos, scrolling through social media — these are reliable and secure data centre solutions. just some of the commonplace activities contributing to the staggering amount of digital information • Introduction of data privacy laws. generated daily. None of it would be possible without Regulatory and compliance requirements for data centres. data security, such as the European Union General A data centre is a specialised facility housing Data Protection Regulation, are prompting computing and networking equipment, that contains corporations to store their data locally. associated components, including servers, routers, telecommunications infrastructure, back-up power In 2007, Mapletree acquired its first data centre supplies, security and surveillance systems, and in Singapore, making it one of the earliest real estate cooling systems to prevent over-heating. This is investors in the local data centre market. Since then, where large volumes of data are collected, stored, Mapletree Investments and its listed industrial processed and transmitted across wireless networks real estate investment trust, Mapletree Industrial Trust to the electronic devices installed in homes and (MIT), have successfully expanded their presence offices, and in the palms of our hands.