Following the AGM approval for Manulife US REIT (MUST) to pivot into other property segments such as retail, co-living, and industrial assets, the REIT has indicated that its sponsor, Manulife, holds a pipeline of assets in the US and Canada for potential acquisition. As MUST increasingly relies on sponsor-sourced transactions, minority unitholders must be vigilant against value transfer arising from acquisitions priced at materially weaker economics than those observable in comparable US market transactions. The Litmus Test In the waiver obtained from the Monetary Authority of Singapore MAS, in the event MUST's leverage is above 50%, it can only buy a property (i) funded with a capital structure of no more than 40% debt and (ii) ICR of at least 1.6 times. This is a low bar to cross. First, an ICR threshold of 1.6x primarily ensures debt serviceability, but offers limited margin of safety against interest rate volatility, leasing risk, or NPI normalization, particularly when...