AN Ayala Land Inc.-led company has filed a registration statement on what could be the country’s first Real Estate Investment Trust (reit) listing at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), which will use the revised rules.
AREIT Inc., previously known as AyalaLand REIT Inc., and One Dela Rosa Property Development Inc., has applied to sell some 478.64 million shares to the public. Its shares consist of 47.86 million new common shares, 430.77 million shares and up to 23.93 million optional shares for over-allotment.
AREIT set the maximum price of the offer at P30.05 per share to raise a total of P1.43 billion to be used for future investments in real-estate properties in Metro Manila and other key regions in the Philippines.
Currently, the company’s portfolio consists of three commercial buildings in Makati, including Solaris One, Ayala North Exchange and McKinley Exchange.
AREIT said it will use the proceeds to fund future investment in real-estate firms including its intended acquisition of the mixed-use development of Teleperformance Cebu from ALO Prime Realty Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of AyalaLand.
Teleperformance Cebu consists of two Peza-accredited BPO offices, completed in 2010 with a combined gross leasable area of 17,947.96 square meters, constructed on a 3,621 square meter parcel of land owned by AyalaLand.
“Our company intends to provide a competitive investment return to investors through execution of a careful investment strategy focused on producing a secure and growing income. Our company’s principal investment strategy is to invest in income-generating real-estate properties that meet a select set of criteria,” it said.
BPI Capital Corp. has been assigned as the deal’s issue manager, bookrunner and lead underwriter.
The Department of Finance in January has approved the amendments to the implementing rules and regulations to the REIT Act of 2009.
Among others, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lowered the minimum public ownership requirement, while the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) removed the 12-percent value-added tax previously imposed on the transfer of properties to a REIT in exchange for its shares, provided the exchange should result in an acquisition by the transferor of at least 51 percent of the outstanding voting capital stocks of the transferee.
The PSE also issued amendments to the listing rules for REITs 20 to provide for the appropriate mechanism, internal controls and procedures to monitor the compliance of REITs with the rules and regulations.