As a Reit investor, one of the objective we would like to see from the management is to increase DPU over time through both organic and inorganic growth. For organic growth, this probably means that they will need to increase their rental over time, passing down the costs to retail tenants who will be increasingly under pressure to outperform their rental lease rate.
I've been learning about strategy concept this past week and one of the professor in our class introduced us to this concept - a Tesco Homeplus Virtual Store. The concept is simple. Targeted at busy professionals who does not have the time to do grocery shopping, the items that are similarly available in the supermarket are now placed at the subway in the form of QR Code. Retailers can then use their smartphone to scan and proceed to checkout systemically and the order will be delivered right at your doorstep. For those who've been to Korea, I think you would have seen this. Think this business model might appeal to Singapore?
What are the things that might or might not work with this business model? Definitely something to consider for supermarts like NTUC or cold storage who would like to increase their online sales and to deter the increasing rental from REITS.
