FCOT – BT
Frasers Commercial down after rights plan
SINGAPORE – Shares in Singapore’s Frasers Commercial Trust dropped as much as 12.5 per cent on Wednesday after it announced plans to raise $213.9 million (US$128.5 million) in a three-to-one rights issue and would borrow $675 million to refinance debt maturing this year.
The property trust had gross borrowings of $945.5 million, of which about $624.5 million will mature in the second half of 2009, the company said in a statement late on Tuesday.
The rights issue is fully underwritten by DBS Bank, BNP Paribas, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp and Standard Chartered’s Cazenove Asia unit.
The benchmark Straits Times Index inched 0.01 per cent higher as of 0354 GMT on Wednesday.