Branded business park specialist Sirius Real Estate has unveiled plans to conduct a placing of new ordinary shares in the company to raise proceeds of approximately £145 mln (€165 mln) for its pipeline of near-term acquisitions.
The capital raise follows the acquisition of assets in Liverpool, Barnsley and three in North London, acquired for a total of approximately £45 mln over the last four months.
The issue and allotment of the new ordinary shares will be within the existing authorities of the company’s board of directors.
The capital raise will comprise an institutional placing that will be conducted through an accelerated book building process which will be made available to new and existing eligible investors, a placing to selected qualified investors in South Africa and a retail offer of new ordinary shares via PrimaryBid's online platform.
Berenberg and Peel Hunt are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners, together with Panmure Gordon. PSG Capital is acting as sole bookrunner and placing agent in respect of the South Africa placing.
Sirius' directors said that it had identified significant opportunities in its markets of Germany and the UK, and that the 'capital raise would provide the flexibility to execute on that pipeline and replenish funds to use opportunistically following several acquisitions in recent months'.
Sirius CEO Andrew Coombs said: 'The fundraise we are proposing this morning follows another positive set of financial and operational results from Sirius, which once more demonstrates our ability to drive value throughout the economic cycle.
'We have delivered further strong FFO growth and announced a double digit increase in dividend, with our asset management platform continuing to deliver rental growth to offset market wide yield expansion.
'During the period we have also been busy sourcing a strong pipeline of accretive investment opportunities at a time when we see real value in our sectors.
'The proceeds of today’s capital raise will allow us to execute on these acquisitions and add a number of high quality assets to the portfolio where we have identified the opportunity to grow our rental income as well as create value through Sirius’ operating platform.'
