Hot stock: APAC Realty rises above IPO price on debut day

SHARES in APAC Realty Ltd surged to an intra-day high of S$0.775 on brisk trades in the counter following the initial public offering (IPO) of the real estate player, which operates under the ERA brand.

This is 11.5 Singapore cents above its IPO price of S$0.66 per share.

APAC Realty ranked as the third most actively traded Thursday on the Singapore Exchange, with over 39.3 million shares changing hands.

The stock closed at S$0.76 on Thursday, 10 cents higher compared to its IPO price.

Its IPO marks the return of ERA to the Singapore Exchange after its holding company, Hersing Realty, was delisted in November 2012.

APAC Realty has received strong indicative interest for both the international placement and public offering of its IPO, which comprises an international placement of over 44.5 million shares and a public offering of 4.4 million shares.

APAC Realty said that at the close of the IPO by Tuesday noon, it had received 3,035 valid applications put in for a total of over 127.7 million shares for its public offering.

Application monies received for the public offering amounted to about S$84.3 million and this translated to the public tranche being 29 times subscribed.

The company also received aggregate indications of interest for over 597.6 million placement shares with a total value of about S$394.4 million. The international placement is about 13.4 times subscribed.

DBS Bank, the sole issue manager, book runner and underwriter to the IPO, has over-allotted 9.75 million shares to the placement tranche to meet the strong demand from institutional investors during the book-building period.

APAC Realty itself has separately entered into cornerstone subscription agreements for an aggregate of over 39.3 million shares with FIL Investment Management (Hong Kong) Ltd, Qilin Asset Management Pte Ltd, Asdew Acquisitions Pte Ltd and Azure Capital Pte Ltd.