$ASCENDAS REAL ESTATE INV TRUST(A17U.SI)$a better buy?

I believe almost eveyone would know Ascendas REIT is a very well-known REIT as you can see its rather iconic logo attached on many industrial buildings in Singapore. It is  is  also Singapore's first and largest listed industrial REIT.

AREIT has a huge and diverse portfolio that is very well diversified across Singapore, US, Australia and UK/EU. They also have about 60% of the portfolio in business parks and data centres which helps the portfolio stay resilient even in times of uncertainty like the pandemic. 

Net property income yield for the first year is estimated at approximately 6.0% and 5.7% pre-transaction costs and post-transaction costs.

AREIT has announced a proposed acquisition of a portfolio of 11 data centres located across Europe from subsidiaries of Digital Realty.

The acquisition will increase A-REIT's investment in data centres from $0.5 billion as of Dec 2020, up to $1.5 billion, representing 10% of A-REIT's total investment.

It posted strong growth in Gross Revenue year on year. This is mainly contributed by the newly acquired properties back in December 2019 and 2 properties acquired in November 2020, then partially offset by rent rebates and lower occupancies in certain properties during pandemic.

Ascendas REIT has a very healthy balance sheet. With their very low leverage of less than 33%, that gives them a huge debt headroom for further expansion. Not to mention their long weighted average lease expiry of more than 4.5 years by rental income, with above 80% of the leases (rental income) embedded with annual rent escalations.

Into going to overseas market, the acquisition gives A-REIT the unique opportunity to own a portfolio of well-occupied data centres located across key markets in Europe.

I feel that during this pandemic there is good potential in the data centre business and AREIT will continue to source and make further acquisitions when the opportunities arise. Industrial REIT is the least affected among others. Although it comes with a huge premium but this is highly justified due to their expansion and records.

What do you feel about the largest industrial reits in singapore at current valuation and their plans?