Commentary - Starhill Gallery in Dubai

Recently I happened to stumble upon this old news dated 17 April 2007 in the YTL community website: YTL Corp launches Starhill Gallery in Dubai

Key Points

• An agreement was signed by Pintar Projek, a subsidiary of YTL Corp, and ETA Star to launch Starhill Gallery in Dubai.
• Dubai's Starhill Gallery will be part of the US$410 million (RM1.4 billion) Starhill Towers & Gallery complex being developed by ETA Star.
• Pintar Projek is also the manager of Starhill REIT listed in Bursa Malaysia.
• ETA Star is a leading property developer in the UAE. 
• Construction of the Starhill Towers & Gallery is scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2010.
• Pintar Projek will provide brand management services to ETA Star in return for licensing fees and an annual brand management fee.
• There is no capital expenditure requirements for YTL Corp.

Was unable to find any follow up news on this, so not sure whether the project is still ongoing. Anyway the last 2 key points mentioned above actually assures that YTL's involvement does not incur any capital expenditure. It is purely licensing out the Starhill brand name. So although  Dubai is in the picture, this should not have much impact on YTL, and probably should not impact its subsidiaries at all.

Starhill Reit and Starhill Global Reit
One should not be confused by these 2 Reits of very similar name, both of which are being sponsored by YTL Corp. Starhill Reit is listed in Bursa Malaysia, while Starhill Global Reit is listed in SGX. Starhill Global Reit was originally Macquarie Prime REIT. It was renamed after YTL Corp bought a 26 per cent stake in the REIT, as well as a 50 per cent stake in Macquarie Prime REIT's manager, Macquarie Pacific Star Prime REIT Management in Oct 2008.

In 18 November 2009, YTL announced the restructuring of Starhill Reit and hotel portfolio under its control. The restructuring exercise will reposition Starhill REIT as a global hospitality REIT. This involves the disposal of its two retail properties, Starhill Gallery and its parcels in Lot 10 to Starhill Global REIT, followed by the injection of new hotel assets to put Starhill REIT on the path towards becoming a fully-fledged international hospitality REIT.