SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - The manager of Mapletree Industrial Trust (MIT) on Wednesday (June 24) said its private placement equity fundraising exercise was 8.2 times covered at an issue price of $2.80 - the top end of its issue price range of $2.732 to $2.80.
Closing one day after launching on June 23, the exercise, whose upsize option was fully taken, will issue about 146.4 million new units, netting the real estate investment trust (Reit) gross proceeds of about $410 million.
The manager will make an application to the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading (SGX-ST) for the listing of the new units on the mainboard of the SGX-ST. New units in MIT are expected to commence trading on the Singapore bourse at 9am on or around July 2.
Demand came from "a broad spectrum of investors, including new and existing institutional investors", the manager said in a regulatory filing.
The issue price represents a 1.6 per cent discount to MIT's adjusted volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of $2.8456 per unit, and a 2.6 per cent discount to MIT's VWAP of $2.8745 per unit for trades done on June 22 before the exercise launch.
MIT on Tuesday proposed to issue about 128.1 million new units to raise at least $350 million, and an upsize option to issue up to 18.3 million new units to raise at least $50 million.
It intends to use about $302.6 million, or 73.8 per cent of the gross proceeds, to fully fund the proposed acquisition of the remaining 60 per cent stake in 14 data centres in the US.
Another $100.9 million, or 24.6 per cent of the gross proceeds, will be used to to repay MIT's debt, fund future acquisitions and/or for general corporate and/or working capital purposes. The remainder will go towards paying estimated fees and expenses related to the private placement.
The proposed acquisition of the 60 per cent stake in the US data centres is subject to the approval of unitholders at an extraordinary general meeting to be convened. If MIT does not proceed with the proposed acquisition, proceeds from the placement shall be redeployed to fund ongoing as well as future investments and/or to pare debt, the manager said.
Citigroup Global Markets Singapore, DBS Bank, and HSBC, Singapore branch were the joint bookrunners and underwriters for this placement.
MIT requested for the lifting of its trading halt on Wednesday morning, following this announcement. Units in MIT, which began trading as part of the benchmark Straits Times Index on Monday, closed at $2.84 on that day.
