Property developer Ayala Land Inc. on Wednesday sold at a discount to institutional investors the shares of its real estate investment trust Areit Inc., which it acquired through a property-for-share swap deal.
In its disclosure, Ayala Land said it sold 87.37 million Areit shares priced at P39.70 per share or about P3.47 billion, exclusive of fees and taxes. The said price is lower than the P44.65 per share paid by Ayala Land.
Areit stockholders approved its second property-for-share swap Ayala Land early this week. The transaction involves six Cebu-based office buildings with an aggregate value of P11.25 billion in exchange for 252.13 million shares at a price of P44.65 per share, as validated by a third-party fairness opinion.
This new asset infusion will expand Areit’s gross leasing area to 673,000 or P64 billion in assets under management in 2022, or double since the company went public in 2020. Bernard Vincent Dy, Ayala Land president and CEO, said during the company’s stockholders’ meeting that the operations of business process outsourcing firms are expanding, while traditional space occupiers are moving to newer buildings like Ayala Triangle Tower Two as well as One Ayala.
“So moving forward for the year, we expect that vacancy rates will be meaningfully reduced, and therefore, our revenues for the office segment should increase in 2022 as compared to 2021,” Dy said.