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KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 29): Axis Real Estate Investment Trust (Axis REIT) proposed to place out up to 247.46 million new units in the property trust to repay bank loans and reduce Axis REIT's gearing ratio.
According to Axis REIT's Bursa Malaysia filing today, the new unit placement to third party investors to be identified later represents up to 20% of Axis REIT's total issued units of 1.24 billion units as at Sept 30, 2019.
"The issue price of the placement units will be determined by the manager, in consultation with the placement agent(s), based on a discount of not more than 10% to the weighted average market price (WAMP) of the units for the five market days immediately prior to the price-fixing date to be determined later.
"The exact amount of proceeds to be raised from the proposed placement is dependent upon the issue price and actual number of the placement units. For illustrative purposes, assuming the maximum number of placement units are issued at an issue price of RM1.75 per unit, representing an estimated discount of approximately 4% to the WAMP of the units for the five market days up to and including the LPD (latest practicable date) of RM1.8233 per unit, the gross proceeds of approximately RM433.05 million would be raised from the proposed placement," Axis REIT said.
Axis REIT Managers Bhd is the management company of Axis REIT. According to Axis REIT, Axis REIT Managers has appointed Maybank Investment Bank Bhd as the principal adviser for the proposed placement.
Axis REIT said the unit placement may be implemented in single or multiple tranches. "Barring any unforeseen circumstances and subject to all approvals being obtained, the first tranche of the proposed placement is expected to be completed by the end of 2019," it said.
The total bank financing of Axis REIT as at Sept 30, 2019 stood at approximately RM1.19 billion, the property trust said. As at Sept 30, 2019, its gearing stood at 40.17%, it said.
