Mapletree Commercial Trust (MCT) has proposed an equity fund raising comprising 406.5 million new units to raise at least $902.3 million, with which to partially fund its $1.55 billion acquisition of Mapletree Business City (Phase 2), it said yesterday.

MCT said it obtained unit holders' approval at an extraordinary general meeting on Tuesday for the proposed acquisition, which will grow its assets from $7.4 billion to $8.9 billion.

The fund raising includes a private placement of 200.9 million new units at an issue price of between $2.24 and $2.28 per unit to raise gross proceeds of at least $450 million, as well as a non-renounceable preferential offering of about 205.6 million units on the basis of 71 new units for every 1,000 existing units in MCT, held as of 5pm on Oct 24.

MCT requested a trading halt yesterday morning. Its units closed at $2.34 each, down 0.4 per cent, or one cent, on Tuesday.

The private placement issue price range represents a discount of between 2.9 per cent and 4.6 per cent to the $2.3484 volume weighted average price (VWAP) of MCT units for all trades done on Tuesday.

The preferential offering issue price range represents a discount of between 4.6 per cent and 6.3 per cent to the VWAP.

The placement units are expected to be listed on the Singapore Exchange at 9am on Oct 25.

The preferential offering opens on Oct 30 at 9am. Entitled unit holders can accept and apply for units in the offering until Nov 7.