Hot stock: Keppel DC Reit up 4.6% as investors weigh S$1.4 billion data centre deal, equity fundraising
It remains the top-traded counter in terms of value by mid-day trading break on Wednesday
UNITS of Keppel DC Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) extended their early-trade rally, adding S$0.10 or 4.6 per cent to S$2.29 by the midday trading break on Wednesday (Nov 20).
Keppel DC Reit remained the top-traded counter in terms of value. Its shares were also heavily traded in terms of volume. By 12.30 pm, some 23.9 million units worth S$53.2 million had been transacted.
The counter jumped 2.3 per cent or S$0.05 to S$2.24 in early trade on Wednesday. It climbed 2.7 per cent or S$0.06 to S$2.25 as at 10.03 am.
A married deal was recorded at 11.27 am, with 59,300 units changing hands at S$2.29.
On Tuesday, the Reit manager proposed to acquire interests in two artificial intelligence-ready hyperscale data centres from a joint venture led by sponsor Keppel for S$1.4 billion. It also launched an equity funding exercise, in which gross proceeds will be partially used to finance the purchase.
The exercise comprises a private placement, a non-renounceable preferential offering and an issuance of sponsor subscription units.
On Wednesday, the private placement closed at S$2.09 apiece with 334.9 million new units issued.
The private placement, which was 3.4 times subscribed, raised gross proceeds of about S$700 million after it was upsized. This brings the total size of the equity fundraising to about S$1.1 billion, from S$985 million previously.
The private placement drew “strong demand from new and existing unitholders globally”, with a majority of them being long-only investors and real estate specialists, said the manager.
The issue price of the preferential offering has been fixed at S$2.03 per new unit. The allotment ratio is fixed on the basis of 86 new units for every 1,000 existing units.
Some S$301.3 million is expected to be raised from the preferential offering, while about S$85 million will be raised from the issuance of sponsor subscription units.
The issue price per subscription unit has been fixed at S$2.09 per unit, equal to the issue price of the private placement.
