Q4 AJohn: Sustainability remains a key consideration in everything that we do. I am proud of the progress we have made in 2024. We also earned a 5 Star rating in the GRESB Real Estate Assessment for the seventh consecutive year and an ‘A’ grade in public disclosure, ranking second among 10 U.S. office peers. In addition, we have also met all our social and governance targets. MUST climbed to the 11th spot among 43 REITs and business trusts in the Singapore Governance and Transparency Index 2024, up from 16th place in 2023, reflecting our commitment to delivering long-term value to our stakeholders. Testament to our commitment to continuous improvement, we completed our first internal audit review on our sustainability reporting process which gave us confidence that our key controls and processes are in place. We have also identified some areas where we can continue to improve as we progress in our sustainability journey. Looking ahead, we will be preparing for the extensive reporting adjustments needed to implement the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) requirements. What sustainability milestones has MUST achieved in FY2024? What are your plans for the year ahead? AMushtaque: Our priority is to achieve financial stability and my job is to ensure that MUST achieves an optimal capital structure through the successful completion of the Recapitalisation Plan while managing capital prudently amidst a challenging leasing environment. We have made significant progress in 2024, with all our loan repayments for 2025 completed ahead of schedule. We intend to continue this momentum and make a full repayment of our 2026 debts by 30 June 2025. A reduction in aggregate leverage and strengthening of our balance sheet will enable us to resume distributions and raise equity capital to diversify and grow MUST's portfolio. Q5 A What are your plans to grow MUST under your leadership? John: My immediate priority is to lead MUST through the Recapitalisation Plan. I am fully committed to seeing the REIT through, so that we can resume distributions to Unitholders as well as execute the growth plans that we have. I am excited and confident that we can continue the momentum that we have gathered so far to navigate towards growth for the REIT. Going forward, we will continue to optimise and enhance the portfolio performance to support sustainable cash flows, returns and distributions. We will also be undertaking necessary steps to broaden our strategy to include other real estate sectors and permissible alternative real estate investments that offer attractive and accretive cash yields and are less capital intensive. At the same time, we will remain firmly rooted in the U.S., which is a market where we have deep expertise. Whether it is new asset types or alternative real estate investments, we will keep leveraging our Sponsor’s global real estate platform and in-house capabilities to capitalise on value opportunities in the dislocated U.S. real estate market for the benefit of Unitholders. raising additional capital to invest in accretive investment opportunities. This will enhance the value of our portfolio, which will not only reduce MUST's aggregate leverage, but also improve its capacity to service debt on a sustainable basis. In 2024, the U.S. Federal Reserve made three interest rate cuts, bringing the federal funds rate from 5.25%-5.50% to 4.25%-4.50%. However, a more hawkish Fed guidance caused market volatility in the fourth quarter that saw the benchmark FTSE ST REIT Index decline 10% in the last three months of the year. As part of our risk management strategy, we continue to monitor interest rate movements and target to maintain an optimal hedge ratio of 50-80%, in tandem with planned debt repayments. ANNUAL REPORT 2024 | 13
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