K-Reit May Raise More Funds After Its Rights Issue

Source : The Business Times, March 31, 2008

K-REIT Asia will look at more forms of financing once its $551.7 million rights issue is completed, Tan Swee Yiow, chief executive of the trust’s manager, told BT.

The real estate investment trust (Reit) is holding an extraordinary general meeting today to get shareholder approval for a rights issue to raise $551.7 million in gross proceeds - partly to repay the $942 million bridging loan it took from Keppel Corp when it purchased its one-third stake in One Raffles Quay (ORQ) last year.

K-Reit is expected to get the mandate for the rights issue easily enough. But shareholders will want to know what plans the trust has to raise the balance needed to repay the loan.

Mr Tan said that the management is well aware of the need to raise more funds, and will address the issue with ‘appropriate debt instruments’ after the rights issue.

‘The $942 million is a bridging loan and we will have to resolve it somehow,’ said Mr Tan. ‘We will have to address that, but we are not addressing it at the same time as the rights issue because we want to do the rights issue first,’ Mr Tan said.

The rights issue, which will significantly reduce the Reit’s gearing, will put the trust in a better place to negotiate with banks, he said.

Upon completion of the rights issue, K-Reit’s gearing will be cut to 27.7 per cent, from 53.9 per cent at present, which is approaching the maximum allowable limit of 60 per cent.

To raise more funds, K-Reit will look at a variety of options, including convertible bonds, commercial mortgage-backed securities and straight debt, Mr Tan said.

Right now, the rights issue means that Keppel Corp and Keppel Land, which have both given irrevocable undertakings to take up their respective allocations of the rights units, could increase their stakes in the Reit. As at end-February, KepCorp and KepLand together owned 72.7 per cent of the Reit.

Mr Tan said that this ‘can’t be helped’. K-Reit had initially decided to go with a convertible bond and unit issue to finance its ORQ purchase. But the plan had to be called off because of weak equity and credit markets. If the issue had gone through, both KepCorp and KepLand would have reduced their stakes, Mr Tan said.

‘Moving forward, if the situation is appropriate, there is nothing to stop them (KepCorp and KepLand) from reducing their stakes, which is the long-term plan,’ Mr Tan said. He is also Keppel Land’s chief executive for Singapore Commercial.