Manulife US Reit acquires New Jersey office building for US$115 million

MANULIFE US Reit has entered into a purchase agreement with a vendor to acquire an office building in New Jersey, US, for US$115 million.

The Reit manager said in a release on Monday night that the purchase will be financed by a combination of debt and equity and a proposed private placement, respectively. It will announce its final decision on the proportion of equity and debt financing at the appropriate time taking into account prevailing market conditions.

The acquisition would be accretive to the Reit's distribution per unit (DPU), and the pro forma DPU for the financial period ended Dec 31, 2016, would increase by 2.3 per cent from 3.55 US cents to 3.63 US cents post-acquisition.

The building, named 500 Plaza Drive, is an 11-storey Class A office building in New Jersey, and is only about five kilometres to the west of New York City's Midtown Manhattan.

Upon completion of the acquisition, the net lettable area of the Reit's enlarged portfolio comprising Trophy and Class A freehold office properties will increase by about 25.9 per cent to a total of 2.25 million sq ft.

An estimated market value as of June 2, 2017, of the property conducted by Cushman & Wakefield was at US$116 million.

Aside from the purchase consideration, about US$1.2 million will be paid by the mainboard-listed Reit in cash to the manager. The Reit will also incur an additional US$4.2 million in professional and other transaction fees and expenses incurred.