Mapletree Investments entered a venture with Bahrain-based investment fund Arcapita to buy S$1.71 billion ($1.3 billion) worth of Singapore industrial properties, with plans to list them through a real estate investment trust (REIT).

The purchase announced on Tuesday is through the Mapletree Industrial Trust, a private real estate fund in which Arcapita will hold 56.5 per cent, Mapletree owns 25.1 per cent, while the Mapletree Industrial Fund will hold the balance, said the property arm of state-owned investor Temasek.

"We will explore the possibility of listing this portfolio as a REIT in due course, possibly in combination with other Mapletree industrial assets," said Mapletree chief executive Hiew Yoon Khong in a statement.

Mapletree said in April it was acquiring the properties, which include 39 blocks of factories, three business park buildings and a warehouse from government-owned JTC Corp, Singapore's largest developer of industrial properties.-Reuters