Lendlease Global Commercial REIT (Lendlease REIT) has raised approximately $280 million from a private placement of its units. The exercise was approximately three times covered with strong participation from new and existing unit holders, long-only funds, real estate specialists, private wealth and multi-strategy investors.
Due to the strong interest, the placement size was increased by approximately $10 million from the initial $270 million. The issue price of 60.2 cents per unit represented a discount of 3.7% to the adjusted volume-weighted average price. The new units are expected to be issued on or around Nov 14.
The gross proceeds from the private placement will be substantially used to finance the acquisition of the 70% interest in PLQ Mall as announced by Lendlease Global Commercial Trust Management, the manager of Lendlease REIT, on Nov 5.
Guy Cawthra, CEO of Lendlease Global Commercial Trust Management, says, “We are extremely pleased with the outcome of the private placement, and the strong support from investors. The robust demand reflects a high level of confidence in our strategy, performance to date and drives our commitment to delivering sustainable value for all stakeholders.”
Upon completion of both the purchase of interest in PLQ Mall and sale of JEM by Nov 12, Lendlease REIT’s total asset value will increase to $3.9 billion with Singapore representing 89% of the portfolio.
PLQ Mall’s agreed property value after taking into account the appraised value by Knight Frank as at Oct 31 is $885.0 million, or approximately a 2.1% or $19.0 million discount to the appraised value. The agreed property value is determined on the basis of a 100% interest in the property.
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Post acquisition, the net property income yield is 4.5% based on the agreed property value. The expected DPU accretion is around 2.5%, increasing from 3.46 cents to 3.56 cents. Leverage is expected to remain at 38.3%.
Lendlease REIT units were trading at 62.5 cents on Nov 6 at around 3.30pm, with more than 24 million units changing hands.
