Hot stock: AA Reit tumbles 6.8% after bookbuilding exercise

UNITS of AIMS Apac Reit (AA Reit) slumped shortly after trading resumed on Wednesday afternoon following the completion of its sponsor's bookbuilding process.

The industrial real estate investment trust (Reit) was trading at S$1.38 as at 1.59pm, about half an hour after its trading halt was lifted, falling 10 Singapore cents or 6.76 per cent.

About 83.7 million units had changed hands by then, making it one of the most heavily traded counters on the Singapore bourse for the day.

Earlier on Wednesday, AIMS Financial, AA Reit's sole sponsor, had placed out 70.3 million secondary units in the Reit at S$1.35 apiece, raising some S$94.9 million.

That sale price is at the bottom end of the offering's indicative range of S$1.35-1.41 apiece, according to a term sheet seen by The Business Times. It also represents an 8.8 per cent discount to the units' closing price of S$1.48 on Oct 15.

The placement units comprised 10.09 per cent of the total number of AA Reit units currently in issue. They were placed out to predominantly new investors, including institutional, sovereign wealth, family office and high net worth investors across the Asia-Pacific and Europe, the manager said during the midday break.

The secondary placement occurred via a bookbuilding process by Merrill Lynch (Singapore), DBS Bank and Maybank Kim Eng Securities on the same day.

The manager requested the trading halt be lifted at 1.30pm on Wednesday. It had earlier called for the halt in the morning to avoid a disorderly trading of the units while the bookbuilding was ongoing.