Robinsons Land Inc., the property development arm of the Gokongwei Group, said Friday its board authorized a private placement of shares in its listed real-estate investment trust RL Commercial REIT Inc. that would raise P8.49 billion.
Robinsons Land said a total 1.73 billion RCR shares were privately placed to “high-quality, long-only institutional investors” at a price of P4.92 each, a discount to the listed REIT’s closing price Thursday of P5.19.
BPI Capital Corp. is the sole placement agent and book runner of the transaction.
The shares were privately placed in the Philippines under transactions exempt from registration under the Philippine Securities Regulation Code. The private placement will not be registered with the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission.
Robinsons Land said that RCR will submit the required plan for the reinvestment of the proceeds from the private placement. The funds, give RCR to acquire more assets.
Subject to market conditions and after securing required approvals, Robinsons Land said, it will infuse around P25 billion worth of assets and increase RCR’s gross leasable space by 60 percent.
A block sale of the RCR shares to the buyers will be undertaken on April 11 via a block sale on the Philippine Stock Exchange.
The private placement will increase the public float of RCR to 49.95 percent.
Lance Gokongwei, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Robinsons Land, said the vision for RCR is to make it the “bellwether REIT in the Philippines real estate landscape” by “infusing yield-accretive and high-quality assets that will complement” the current portfolio of the listed REIT.
The initial portfolio of RCR of 16 assets is comprised of these assigned properties as well as Robinsons Cybergate Center 2 and Robinsons Cybergate Center 3 in Mandaluyong City. The land on which 11 of the assigned properties are situated is leased by the Company from its sponsor, Robinsons Land, while Cyber Sigma is subject to a lease agreement with the Bases Conversion Development Authority.
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