Ascendas REIT property in Singapore, One@Changi City. (Photo: Ascendas REIT)

Ascendas REIT (SGX:A17U) has set the price per new unit to be issued under a private placement exercise of 90 million new units first announced on 9 December at SGD2.223.

Correspondingly the issue price for a preferential offering of 3 units for every 80 units announced on the same day has been fixed at SGD2.218. The private placement and issue prices represent discounts of 6.2% and 6.4% respectively to the volume weighted average price of SGD2.3706 per unit done on the Singapore Exchange on 8 December.

The Singapore-listed industrial REIT is conducting the private placement and preferential offering exercises to raise gross proceeds of at least SGD408 million. Part of the proceeds will be deployed to fund the One@Changi City.

94.4 million units raised from the private placement exercise will be issued to Ascendas Frasers Pte Ltd as partial payment for the One@Changi City acquisition while approximately SGD82 million of the proceeds will be used to fund the potential acquisition of a logistics property in Australia, said the REIT in an announcement on 10 December.

A further SGD98.8 million will be used to for debt repayment and future acquisitions.

New units issued under the private placement are expected to commence trading on the Singapore Exchange on 18 December. Units of Ascendas REIT are currently listed on the Singapore Exchange at SGD2.38 and will commence trading on 10 December following a trading halt from the previous day.

By Ridzwan Rahmat

Ridzwan has been analysing REITs and business trusts since 2008, and personally manages a portfolio comprising mainly of SGX-listed REITs. He founded REITsWeek in 2013.