Ascendas India Trust's private placement two times subscribed, issues more new units

A PRIVATE placement for Ascendas India Trust (a-iTrust) has been oversubscribed, said its trustee manager.

The placement was about two times covered and the number of new units to be issued has been raised from 73 million to 97.4 million.

Based on the issue price of S$1.027 - a discount of 7 per cent to the volume-weighted average price of units traded on Feb 5 - the total proceeds raised has increased from about S$75 million to about S$100 million.

The trustee manager said that it intends to use about S$84 million to repay a bridging loan drawn down to finance the acquisition of operating warehouses at the Arshiya Free Trade Warehousing Zone as announced in November last year.

About S$14.8 million will be used to repay the trust's existing debts.

The last S$1.2 million will be used to pay the estimated fees and expenses for the private placement.

Following these, a-iTrust's gearing will be reduced from 35.1 per cent to 29.4 per cent.

The new units will start trading at 9am on Feb 14.