Shareholders of Mapletree Logistics Trust have approved plans by the trust to issue new units.
Under the proposal, first announced last month, Mapletree is seeking to raise up to S$349 million to help boost its market share in Asia.
The funds will be used partly to fund the acquisition of 15 new distribution centres and warehouses in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and China, and to refinance 5 properties in Singapore and Malaysia.
Chua Tiow Chye, CEO, Mapletree Logistics Trust, said: “For each of the acquisitions, we need to make sure that they add positive accretion to our distribution per unit.
“As of last night we announced the DPU for fourth quarter of 1.45 cents, ongoing basis year on year, we’ll see that each of the acquisitions that we’ve been bringing will continue to add on to the distribution per unit and each acquisition will be accretive.
“From this angle, we see that depending on the final price in which we raise the equity, the increase could be anything between five and ten percent of the base portfolio as of 30th September.”
Details about the number of new shares and the pricing have yet to be confirmed.
Mapletree Logistics will offer part of the new units to the public via an ATM offering.A private placement to institutional investors could take place by the end of February.
Source: Channel NewsAsia, 17 January 2007