Industrial Reits: not that defensive says Credit Suisse

Trasferring a Good article about Industrial REIT to share here.
Last week, Credit Suisse issued a report on industrial Reits. Excerpts from report’s Executive Summary.
Not as defensive as perceived: We assume coverage of the Singapore industrial Reits sector with a slightly negative stance as we believe that the perception of its defensiveness (due to longer lease tenures) is misplaced.
… we have done thorough analyses on the factory, business parks and warehouses sub-segments, and conclude that we are most positive on the warehouse sector fundamentals.
… flat to low single-digit growth for factory rents driven by high occupancy, and business park rents to moderate due to the oncoming supply pressure (including new supply of decentralised office space).
Potential weak demand may slow rental growth: Singapore industrial rents have surpassed pre-sub-prime crisis peaks and are at 10-year highs.
… upside is limited from here on, given the moderating economic growth outlook, Singapore’s high exposure to the US and European economies and the appreciating currency which will reduce Singapore’s competitiveness as an industrial location of choice.
However … the few less labour-intensive, higher value-add fields, and sectors/ players with better pricing power, like biotechnology, water technology, environmental/energy sciences will likely be less impacted by cost inflation.
This should underpin rental growth for the class of industrial assets exposed to these sectors.
… expect rents in (logistics) warehouse – our preferred industrial sub-segment – to continue to remain strong on the back of fairly strong 90-91 per cent occupancies based on limited supply completion over the next three years. While supply for all factories over the next five years looks manageable, at 9-10 per cent of existing supply of 332 million sq ft NLA for factories and business parks … rents for older-specs factories could come under pressure especially given current economic uncertainties, which will likely impact SMEs and less cost-efficient companies (those at the lower end of the value chain).
… hi-tech and business park rents to moderate, due to the oncoming supply of business parks over the next four years amounting to 29 per cent of existing supply, coupled with existing high vacancies.
M&A increasingly challenging: Despite the supportive capital-raising environment, in our view, with cap rates continuing to compress on the back of rising competition for land (as industrial assets have the highest yields), … becoming increasingly challenging for a Reit to make an accretive acquisition, particularly in Singapore, where capital values today are at 10-year highs.
Based on our analyses of Ascendas Reit (A-Reit), Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) and Mapletree Industrial Trust (MINT), we conclude that (1) A-Reit has the most debt headroom with $1 billion available for future acquisitions; (2) A-Reit and MLT both have the strongest acquisition pipeline, with $1 billion each of injection pipeline from their sponsors; and (3) MINT and MLT have the highest risk of placement, depending on the size of transaction given their gearing levels of 39.3 per cent and 40.6 per cent, respectively.
Three investable names, at this stage: After screening for market cap of over $1 billion and liquidity of US$1.5 million/day, only three of the seven industrial S-Reits are deemed investable: A-Reit, MLT, MINT.