Manulife US Reit's private placement closes at US$0.649 per unit

MANULIFE US Real Estate Investment Trust (Manulife US Reit)'s BTOU private placement closed about 2 times covered and was priced at US$0.649 per new unit.

The issue price was at the lowest end of the indicated price range of US$0.649 to US$0.676 when the proposed placement was announced on Tuesday (Nov 30) morning.

It represents an 8.9 per cent discount to the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of US$0.7124 per unit and 5.9 per cent discount to the adjusted VWAP of US$0.6898 per unit based on trades in Manulife US Reit's units on Nov 29 up to the time the placement agreement was signed.

In an update late Tuesday after market close, the Reit manager said the private placement saw participation from both new and existing institutional investors as well as private wealth clients.

A total of 154,084,000 new units will be issued under the private placement, and trading of the new units on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) is expected to commence on Dec 9 at 9 am.

In the update, the manager said about US$93.5 million or 93.5 per cent of the estimated US$100 million of gross proceeds will go towards financing part of the total acquisition cost of 3 properties in Arizona and Oregon, US.

The remaining amount of approximately US$6.5 million or 6.5 per cent of gross proceeds will go towards paying the estimated fees and expenses.

Units of Manulife US Reit closed at US$0.71 on Monday (Nov 29), down US$0.01 or 1.4 per cent, before a trading halt was called on Tuesday morning, prior to the placement announcement. The counter resumes trading on Wednesday (Dec 1).

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