Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) yesterday priced its private placement at $1.88 per unit and its preferential offering at $1.84 per unit. Total gross proceeds of the fund-raising exercise will be some $692.8 million, comprising $400 million from the private placement and $292.8 million from the preferential offering.
The trust on Tuesday said it is acquiring a portfolio of 17 Grade-A logistics assets with an average age of 1.6 years in China, Vietnam and Japan for a combined value of $1.4 billion.
Some 97.5 per cent, or $675.5 million, of the gross proceeds will be used to fund these acquisitions, while 2.5 per cent, or $17.3 million, will be used to pay for fees and expenses in connection with the acquisitions and equity fund-raising.
Some 212.8 million new units will be issued under the private placement while 159.1 million new units will be issued under the preferential offering.
In connection with the private placement, the manager intends to declare an advanced distribution for the period from Oct 1 to Dec 2. The distribution per existing unit is currently estimated to be between 1.45 cents and 1.47 cents. An announcement on the actual quantum will be made in due course, the manager said.
The private placement issue price of $1.88 per new unit came in at the lower end of the price range. It represents a discount of 2.8 per cent to the adjusted volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of $1.9339 per unit, for trades done on the preceding market day on Monday up to the time the underwriting agreement was entered, minus the estimated advanced distribution of 1.46 cents per unit.
It is also a 3.5 per cent discount to the VWAP of $1.9485 per unit for all trades done on the Singapore Exchange on Monday.
According to the trust manager, the placement was oversubscribed and saw good participation from new and existing institutional, accredited and other investors.
The preferential offering issue price of $1.84 per new unit was around the mid-point of the indicated price range. It represents a discount of 4.9 per cent to the adjusted VWAP of $1.9339 per unit and 5.6 per cent to the VWAP of $1.9485 per unit.
THE BUSINESS TIMES
