SINGAPORE - Frasers Commercial Trust (FCT) has raised gross proceeds of $142.1 million from an upsized private placement, its trust manager announced on Friday.

It said 96 million new units were placed at an issue price of $1.48 per unit, at the top end of the indicated price range.

The placement was upsized 14.3 per cent after strong demand from existing and new institutional investors, said the trust manager.

Frasers Centrepoint Ltd undertook to subscribe for 23.1 million units, while the demand book for the remaining 72.9 million units was over two times subscribed.

The net proceeds from the placement amount to approximately $140.2 million, of which $122.7 million will be used to partly finance the acquisition of 357 Collins Street in Melbourne, Australia. The remainder of $17.5 million will be used to pay down existing debt and/or for general working purposes.

The issue price represents a tight discount of 1.6 per cent to the adjusted volume weighted average price of $1.5046 per unit for trades done on the Singapore Exchange for the preceding market day on July 22, 2015, and up to the time the placement agreement was signed on July 23.

The trust manager also announced that it will declare an advanced distribution of FCT's distributable income for the period from July 1, 2015, to August 2, 2015, to the trusts' existing unitholders. The new units will not be entitled to the advanced distribution. The distribution per unit under the advanced distribution is estimated to be 0.7805 cents per unit.

The actual quantum will be announced at a later date, after FCT's management accounts for the relevant period have been finalised, said the trust manager.

The next distribution following the advanced distribution will comprise FCT's distributable income for the period from August 3, 2015, to September 30, 2015, it added. Quarterly distributions will resume thereafter, it said.