UOB
United Overseas Bank (UOB) has inked a pact with Shanghai Qilu Industrial, a state-owned company under the Shandong provincial government, to provide financing of up to three billion yuan (S$600 million) to Shandong-based companies.
The financing will help Shandong's leading companies in the logistics, construction, infrastructure and industrials sectors expand into South-east Asia, UOB said yesterday.
Shanghai Qilu is a conglomerate focusing on investment promotion, logistics and real estate. It was set up in 1992 to drive economic and enterprise growth in Shanghai Pudong and Shandong.
The pact was signed during the 20th Singapore-Shandong Business Council meeting in Jinan, the capital of Shandong.
Shanghai Qilu chairman Wang Qian said: "We will tap overseas investments and markets to deepen the capabilities of Shandong-based companies and to facilitate their expansion as they seize business opportunities from the Belt and Road Initiative."
Keppel-KBS US Reit
The manager of Keppel-KBS US Reit on Monday announced the launch of an underwritten and renounceable rights issue to raise gross proceeds of around US$93.1 million (S$128 million).
Both Keppel Capital Investment Holdings and KBS SOR Properties will take up their full entitlement of the rights units, but the Reit manager will not be subscribing for its pro rata share of the rights units.
The 295-for-1,000 rights issue of 186.24 million new shares will be offered at US$0.50 apiece. The price is a 30.1 per cent discount to the Reit's closing price of US$0.715 per unit on the Singapore Exchange on Monday - being the last trading day of the units prior to the announcement of the rights issue - and a 24.9 per cent discount to the theoretical ex-rights price of US$0.666 per unit.
The gross proceeds of US$93.1 million from the rights issue will partially finance the proposed acquisition of the Westpark Portfolio, a business campus comprising 21 freehold buildings in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Metropolitan Statistical Area in Washington, which is estimated to cost US$169.4 million in total.
Keppel-KBS US Reit said the Singapore Exchange had on Monday given its in-principle approval for the listing and quotation of the right units on the mainboard.
The Reit also expects the rights issue to increase its market capitalisation, which may "help to improve the trading liquidity" of its units listed on the Singapore Exchange.
