Corporate/M&A Update: Revised Guidelines On Listed Real Estate Investment Trusts Issued By The Securities Commission Malaysia.
The Securities Commission Malaysia has issued the revised Guidelines on Listed Real Estate Investment Trusts (“Guidelines”) on 27 March 2026. The Guidelines was revised to introduce a new guidance to paragraph 8.09(a) of the Guidelines.
The new guidance is introduced to clarify the expectations on a management company for compliance with paragraph 8.09(a) of the Guidelines in circumstances where legal title is not transferred to the real estate investment trust (“REIT”) on the completion date of the sale and purchase agreement. In this regard, to ensure that the REIT has good marketable legal and beneficial title in all its real estate, a management company is expected to:
- obtain a legal opinion from a suitably experienced legal firm specialising in real estate matters, ensuring or confirming, as the case may be, that relevant and appropriate measures are in place towards ensuring that such transfer of legal title is completed;
- take reasonable steps to effect the transfer of legal title in favour of the REIT and is satisfied that the REIT will have good marketable legal and beneficial title in the real estate upon completion of the transfer; and
- make relevant disclosures to the unit holders of the REIT regarding the risks associated with the transfer of title and the measures implemented to mitigate such risks.
The revised Guidelines can be accessed here.
