The manager of Manulife US REIT (MUST) is seeking to raise US$80.0 million ($109.7 million) through a proposed private placement of new units in the REIT at an issue price of between 64.9 US cents to 67.6 US cents per unit.
The size of the private placement may be increased by up to 30.8 million units to raise additional gross proceeds of around US$20.0 million.
This comes as the REIT announced the acquisition of three properties in Phoenix, Arizona and Portland, Oregon on Nov 30.
Of the US$80.0 million, US$73.9 million will finance part of the acquisition cost while the remainder will go towards paying the fees and expenses related to the acquisition.
The issue price range represents a discount of between 5.1% to 8.9% to the volume weighted average price (VWAP) of the 71.24 US cents per unit of all trades in MUST’s units on Nov 29.
The increase in the total number of units and enlarged unitholder base are expected to improve the trading liquidity of the units.
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According to MUST, the manager has a general mandate to be able to issue 795.8 million units from April 30 to the conclusion of the next annual general meeting (AGM). Of the figure, no more than 318.3 million units may be issued on a non pro rata basis. So far, the manager of MUST has issued 8.4 million units on a non pro rata basis.
Accordingly, the approval of unitholders is not required for the issue of the new units under the private placement.
The new units are expected to be issued and commence trading on the SGX-ST on Dec 9.
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Unitholders will receive advanced distributions on their existing units; a further announcement will be made at a later date.
DBS Bank and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) are the joint lead managers and underwriters.
Units in MUST closed at 71 US cents on Nov 29.
Photo: MUST
