(Oct 24): Singapore's malls are one click away from irrelevance, though the investment trusts that own them are carrying on as if nothing has changed.

The first hint of trouble showed up in January when department store John Little shut down after a 174-year run. Then, in July, Amazon.com Inc. introduced its two-hour Prime Now delivery service, choosing the city-state of 5.6 million people as the testing ground to fine-tune its Southeast Asia ambitions.

The landlords don't appear all that perturbed; at least not yet. CapitaLand Mall Trust, the island's biggest retail real-estate investment trust, announced 2.78 cents (2 cents) in dividends last week, unchanged from a year earlier. That's an annual yield of almost 5.5% at a time when the 10-year Singapore government bond offers only 2.2%. The tantalizing premium is keeping investors hooked.

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