Ascendas REIT, on Nov 10, announced that it will be launching an equity fund raising to raise gross proceeds of some $1.2 billion through a private placement of between 256,329,000 and 264,376,000 new units with an issue price range of between $3.026 and $3.121 for each private placement new unit.
The issue price range for each preferential offering new unit will be between $2.960 and $3.050.
The private placement issue price range represents a discount of about 2.8% and 5.7% to the volume weighted average price (VWAP) of $3.2096 per unit of all trades in the units on the SGX-ST for the preceding market day on Nov 9.
It represents approximately 1% and 4% to the adjusted VWAP of $3.1522 per unit.
The proceeds will also be raised through a pro rata and non-renounceable preferential offering of up to 133,948,782 new units to eligible unitholders.
The preferential offering issue price range represents about 5.0% and 7.8% to the VWAP of $3.2096 per unit, and 3.2% and 6.1% to the adjusted VWAP per unit.
The manager says it intends to use $390.0 million of the gross proceeds to partially fund the San Francisco acquisitions, and another $614.0 million to partially fund the acquisition of a portfolio of data centres in Europe.
Read Also: Ascendas REIT acquires two office properties in San Francisco for $768 mil
Another $180.0 million will be used to partially fund the acquisition of a suburban office property located in Australia, while some $16.0 million will go towards the estimated fees and expenses incurred by the REIT.
The manager says it expects distribution per unit (DPU) of the proposed US acquisitions and potential acquisitions to be accretive on a pro forma basis.
Should the acquisitions not take place eventually, the manager says it will use the net proceeds of the equity fund raising for other purposes including funding future acquisitions and the repayment of existing debt.
The manager, DBS Bank and JP Morgan are the joint global co-ordinators and bookrunners.
As at 9.05am, units in Ascendas REIT are trading flat at $3.19.
