Mapletree Commercial Trust's Mapletree Business City. (Photo: Mapletree Commercial Trust)

The manager of Mapletree Commercial Trust, Mapletree Commercial Trust Management Ltd, announced on 17 August that it has increased its stake in the REIT by 6,308,608 units.

The increase is a result of the manager’s acceptance of a provisional allotment pursuant to a preferential offering that was first announced in July 2016.

The new units were acquired for SGD1.42 each.

The Singapore-listed office REIT had announced an equity fund raising exercise that sought to raise some SGD1 billion by offering 727.7 million new units via a private placement, and a preferential offering exercise.

The preferential offering, which consisted of 362.8 million new units, were offered on the basis of 17 new units for every 100 existing units in the REIT.

Proceeds from both the private placement and preferential offering exercises are being deployed to partly fund the acquisition of Mapletree Business City (Phase 1).

Units of Mapletree Commercial last changed hands on the Singapore Exchange at SGD1.54.

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.