Sasseur REIT breaks the stereotype of REITs as passive landlords, operating instead as a hands-on retail partner with a high-touch model that thrives on doing more with every sale. When picturing their investments, many who invest in REITs might call to mind office space in the business district, suburban malls in the heartlands, or industrial buildings and data centres clustered away from the city and urban areas. Rent is collected, leases are managed, occupancy is kept stable, and investors and REIT managers alike benefit from the resulting yield. So it goes. Sasseur REIT, on the other hand, operates in a different universe. Its malls are in China and its revenue moves hand in hand with retail performance. After all, its CEO Cheng Hsing Yuen believes that the business succeeds only when its tenants succeed—a perspective some could find refreshing in contrast to the reputation REITs sometimes get of being landlords who collect rent while their tenant retailers struggle to survive....