Frasers Commercial Trust raises S$142.1m from upsized placement

FRASERS Commercial Trust (FCOT), which owns commercial property in Singapore and Australia, said on Friday it has raised gross proceeds of about S$142.1 million from a private placement.

In a press release, the trust manager added it intends to declare an "advanced distribution" of its distributable income for the period of July 1 to Aug 2, 2015, to its existing unitholders, which it estimated to be 0.7805 Singapore cent per unit.

Its placement was of 96 million new units at S$1.48 apiece, which the trust said was at the top end of the price range.

It added that the placement was upsized 14.3 per cent to S$142.1 million after strong demand from existing and new institutional investors.

The net proceeds from the placement sum came up to about S$140.2 million, most of which the trust plans to use to finance the acquisition of 357 Collins Street in Melbourne.

The remainder will be used to pay down existing debt and for general working purposes, it said.

It expects to pay the advanced distribution on or around Oct 1, 2015. The new placement units will not attract the advanced distribution, it said.

FCOT units closed half a cent lower at S$1.535 on Thursday.

Trading in the counter was halted at around 11am on Thursday and was resumed on Friday morning.