CapitaLand Retail China Trust to issue 191.9m new units to fund mall buys

CAPITALAND Retail China Trust, which is buying three shopping centres from CapitaLand, launched on Thursday the equity fundraising exercise for the purchase.

The manager plans to raise gross proceeds of between S$273.4 million and S$279.4 million, in a private placement and a pro rata and non-renounceable preferential offering for unitholders.

About 191.9 million new units would be issued under the latest fundraising exercise.

Some 105 million of those new units will be offered to eligible institutional, accredited and other investors at between S$1.428 and S$1.469 apiece, which could raise up to S$154.3 million.

Meanwhile, existing unitholders can get 87 new units for every 1,000 units already held as at 5pm on Aug 13 at between S$1.420 and S$1.440 apiece, for proceeds of up to S$125.1 million.

The net proceeds of about S$268.4 million, based on the lower end of both issue price ranges, would go towards the S$505.4 million purchase of CapitaMall Xuefu and CapitaMall Aidemengdun in Harbin, and CapitaMall Yuhuating in Changsha, the manager said in its announcement.

The manager and Retail Crown Pte Ltd - which are both wholly-owned CapitaLand units, with a collective stake of 25.76 per cent in the trust - have made irrevocable undertakings to subscribe to their total allotments of new units in the preferential offerings.

CapitaLand Mall Trust trustee HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Singapore), which owns an interest of about 12.28 per cent, has made the same commitment. (see amendment note)

The new units from the private placement will be listed on Aug 14, while the preferential offering opens on Aug 16, with acceptances due by 5pm on Aug 26. Those units will be listed on Sept 3.

DBS Bank and JPMorgan are the joint global coordinators and bookrunners for the exercise.

The counter shed S$0.04 or 2.52 per cent to S$1.55 on Thursday before the announcement.

Amendment note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the real estate investment trust for which HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Singapore) is the trustee. The story has been updated to reflect the correction.