SINGAPORE - ESR Reit (real estate investment trust) opened its preferential offering of about 98.1 million new units for subscription on Thursday (Sept 26) at 9am with an issue price of $0.510 per unit.

Subscription can be made via acceptance forms for new units provisionally alloted to entitled shareholders under the offering, application forms for excess new units, and automated teller machines (ATMs) of participating banks DBS (including POSB), OCBC and UOB.

The offering will close at 5pm on Oct 4 for subscriptions made via acceptance and application forms; applications made through ATMs will close on the same day at 9.30pm.

The Reit announced in June the preferential offering alongside a private placement offering to raise a total of up to $150 million in gross proceeds.

The private placement, which was 2.5 times covered, raised $100 million at the lower end of its issue price range - $0.515 per unit.

The Reit announced on Sept 13 the issue price of the preferential offering was $0.510 per unit, with a target to raise up to $50 million.

The issue price represents a discount of about 2.4 per cent to the volume-weighted average price of $0.5224 per unit for trades done on Sept 12, which was the preceding market day.

The preferential offering will issue 29 new units for every 1,000 existing units.

Sponsor ESR Cayman Limited has provided an irrevocable undertaking that it will accept all new units it is entitled to under the preferential offering and apply for any excess new units that have not been taken up after applications close on Oct 4.

Proceeds from the preferential offering will be used to partially finance asset enhancement works at the Reit's Ang Mo Kio and Changi Business Park properties, and repay existing debts.

ESR Reit units were down $0.005 or 0.9 per cent to $0.53 as at 9.02am.