Elite Commercial Reit’s preferential offering closes with 61.3% valid acceptances

ELITE Commercial Reit has received valid acceptances of 61.3 per cent for its preferential offering of around 103.4 million new units.

The offering, which is fully underwritten and non-renounceable, was offered to existing unitholders at a ratio of 214 preferential offering units for every 1,000 existing units at £0.27 apiece.

This was to raise about £28 million (S$47.2 million) in gross proceeds to repay debts, reduce gearing and strengthen the real estate investment trust’s (Reit) balance sheet.

The number of valid acceptances accounted for 63.3 million of the total preferential offering units. Excess applications, meanwhile, stood at 61.9 million preferential offering units, the manager said in a bourse filing on Tuesday (Jan 16).

The 40 million preference offering units not validly accepted will be allotted towards applications for excess units.

Sponsor Sunway RE Capital, which subscribed for excess preferential offering units, has been allotted some 31.2 million excess units. Including its provisional allotment, Sunway RE Capital has obtained a total of 37.3 million preferential offering units.

As a result, its unitholding has increased to 11.2 per cent from 5.8 per cent, the manager noted.

“With the successful completion of the preferential offering, we are turning our attention next to the refinancing task at hand, extending Elite Commercial Reit’s leases and future phases of growth,” said Joshua Liaw, chief executive of the Reit’s manager.

The manager expects the preferential offering units to be listed and quoted on the Singapore Exchange’s mainboard at 9 am on Jan 18.

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The Singapore branches of CGS-CIMB and RHB were the joint underwriters for the preferential offering.

Elite Commercial Reit’s units closed £0.01 or 3.7 per cent higher at £0.28 on Monday.