MI-REIT – BT

Moody’s rates MI-Reit as ‘developing’

CREDIT rating agency, Moody’s Investors Service, yesterday changed Macarthurcook Industrial Reit’s (MI-Reit) Baa3 rating outlook to developing from stable.

The change came after the announcement that AMP Capital Investors made a proposal to acquire the entire capital of MacarthurCook for A$1.35 per share.

MacarthurCook owns 92.5 per cent of the manager of MI-Reit, MacarthurCook Investment Managers (Asia), and has direct and indirect interest of about 13 per cent in MI-Reit.

The conditions of the proposal have not been revealed.

AMP became a substantial shareholder in MacarthurCook through the entry into a pre-bid acceptance agreement with Ascalon Capital Managers in respect to their 18.4 per cent shareholding in Macarthurcook. AMP is one of the principal operating subsidiaries of AMP Group Holdings of Australia.

Moody’s said it expects a resolution of the developing outlook would occur once it becomes clear if the takeover is going to proceed and whether this will result in changes in respect of the strategic direction and medium-term operating and financial outlook for MI-Reit.

MI-Reit reported total assets of $569 million and revenues of $32 million for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008.