A-Reit plans private placement to raise at least S$150m

THE manager of Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust (A-Reit) has proposed a private placement of 64 million new units in the Reit at issue prices between S$2.344 and S$2.417 apiece to raise gross proceeds of at least S$150 million, it said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Monday evening.

The placement will be to unspecified "institutional and other investors". The trust manager said that it planned to use about S$108.5 million - 72.3 per cent of the gross proceeds - to partially fund the proposed purchases of two Australia properties: a business park in Sydney and a logistics property in Melbourne.

The total purchase sum for the two Australia properties is expected to be about S$185 million, it said.

It intends to use another S$40 million to renovate a "hi-specs" property in Singapore to turn it from a multi-tenant property to a single-tenant building, it added.

The joint lead managers and underwriters are Citi and DBS.