Shares of RL Commercial REIT Inc. (RCR), the real estate investment trust (REIT) of the Gokongwei Group, closed little changed from its initial public offering (IPO) price on its first day of trading at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Tuesday.
Shares of RCR gained a mere P0.01 to close at P6.46 apiece.
RCR, currently the country’s biggest REIT, still managed to brave the fall in the overall market, as the benchmark PSE index declined 47.78 points to close at 6,920.36 points.
“Investors in Philippine stocks turned into profit takers after hitting the 7,000 psychological mark intraday to lock in gains over several weeks of successive run-ups,” said Luis Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital and Investment Corp.
“In addition, trading activity was focused on the maiden voyage of RCR, which finished slightly up to end its first trading session.”
RCR beat Andrew Tan’s Megaworld Corp.’s MREIT Inc. after it raised some P23.53 billion from its share sale. Its real estate assets have a gross leasable area (GLA) of 425,315 square meters, while its initial property portfolio was valued at P73.9 billion.
Its sponsor, Robinsons Land Inc., has extended to RCR land leases of as long as 99 years, the longest tenure of land lease among Philippine REITs to date, providing RCR with long term sustainability and growth, PSE President Ramon S. Monzon said.
“It is no surprise therefore that institutional investors, both local and foreign, heavily supported RCR’s IPO [initial public offering]. Local small investors, or LSIs, from 52 provinces and 14 countries likewise joined the RCR investment bandwagon. In fact, for the first time ever in PSE’s history, a local small investor from Iraq invested in an IPO via PSE’s Electronic Allocation System or PSE EASy,” he said.
“Investors in RCR can also look forward to a healthy growth in RCR’s property portfolio as other assets comprising 204,000 square meters of existing office assets, 68,000 square meters of business process outsourcing space, as well as 150,000 square meters of properties in various stages of construction are expected to be injected into RCR’s portfolio in the future.”
RLC will inject Cyberscape Gamma and Robinsons Cybergate Center 1. These two assets have a combined GLA of 72,100 square meters, equivalent to approximately 17 percent of RCR’s total GLA.
Cyberscape Gamma is a 37-storey PEZA-registered office development in Ortigas, with about 45,000 square meters of GLA. Meanwhile, Robinsons Cybergate Center 1 is an 18-storey PEZA-registered office building in the Robinsons Cybergate Complex in Mandaluyong, with 27,300 square meters of GLA.
BPI Capital Corp. and UBS AG Singapore Branch served as the joint global coordinators, lead managers and joint bookrunners for the offer. BPI Capital was the lead local underwriter and UBS AG Singapore Branch was the lead international bookrunner for the offer.
China Bank Capital Corp., First Metro Investment Corp. and PNB Capital and Investment Corp. were also tapped as local underwriters, while CLSA Limited and Merill Lynch (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. were the international bookrunners. SB Capital Investment Corp. was also a participating underwriter.