Mapletree Logistics Trust to raise $650.0 mil through equity fund

The manager intends to use about $632.5 million to partially fund the acquisitions announced yesterday.

The manager of Mapletree Logistics Trust (MLT) is seeking to raise gross proceeds of $650.0 million through a proposed equity fund raising of new units in the trust.

The fund raising will be done through a private placement of between 222.0 million to 228.1 million new units at an issue price of between $1.973 and $2.027 per new unit to raise gross proceeds of $450.0 million.

The private placement is subject to an upsize option to issue up to 25.3 million additional new units to raise additional proceeds of up to $50.0 million.

Another $150.0 million will be raised through a non-renounceable preferential offering of up to 76.2 million new units at an issue price of $1.94 and $1.99 per new unit.

The private placement issue price range represents a discount of about 1.2% to 3.8% to the adjusted volume weighted average price (VWAP) of $2.0513 per unit.

It also represents a discount of approximately 2.5% and 5.1% to the VWAP of $2.0781 per unit in MLT of all trades on the SGX-ST for the preceding market day on Oct 19 up to the time the agreement was signed on Oct 20.

The preferential offering issue price range represents a discount of some 3.0% to 5.4% to the adjusted VWAP of $2.0513 per unit, and a discount of about 4.2% to 6.6% to the VWAP of $2.0781 per unit.

Citigroup Global Markets, DBS Bank, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited have been appointed as the joint global co-ordinators and bookrunners for the equity fund raising.

According to an SGX filing, the manager intends to use about $632.5 million to partially fund the acquisitions of the remaining 50% interest in 15 properties and a 100% interest in seven properties in China, as well as a property each in Malaysia and Vietnam.

See: Mapletree Logistics Trust plans DPU and NAV accretive acquisition for $1.04 billion

Another $17.5 million will go to the fees and expenses incurred by the acquisitions and equity fund raising.

The acquisitions will be subject to the approval of unitholders to be sought at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM).

“The manager believes that the equity fund raising is an efficient and overall beneficial method of raising funds to part-finance the purchase consideration for the acquisitions,” it says.

Each eligible unitholder will be provisionally allotted the new units under the preferential offering on the basis of their unitholdings in MLT as at 5pm on Oct 28, 2020.

Approval in-principle for the new units has been obtained from the SGX-ST.

Units in Mapletree Logistics Trust closed flat at $2.08 on Oct 19. A trading halt was called before market open on Oct 20.

See also: Mapletree Logistics Trust posts 1.5% rise in DPU to 2.055 cents

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