CapitaLand Ascendas REIT has issued a private placement to raise S$450m (€310m) to pay for a research and development facility in Singapore and a potential acquisition in Europe.
The manager of the trust, CapitaLand Ascendas REIT Management (CLAR), said proceeds from the capital raising would go to partially fund the purchase of the R&D business park from the technology company Seagate Singapore, which was being acquired for S$218.2m.
The addition of the Seagate facility would be accretive to earnings and would further expand the REIT’s presence in the prime business and research precinct, known as one-north, in Singapore, the manager said.
Part of the placement proceeds - approximately S$129.9m – would be used towards the potential acquisition of an asset in a key gateway city in Europe.
“CLAR has entered into an exclusivity agreement for the potential Europe acquisition of an asset that is located in a key gateway city within CLAR’s existing geographic footprint,” the manager said.
It was working towards entering the definitive agreement but added that there was no assurance that a definitive, legally-binding agreement would be entered into and that the potential Europe acquisition would materialise, it said.
The balance of the capital raised will go into debt repayment and finance capital expenditure, including the redevelopment of an existing logistics property in Singapore, estimated to cost S$107m and due for completion late 2025.
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