Sabana – BT

Sabana Reit units 2.5 times subscribed

SHARES in Sabana Shari’ah Compliant Industrial Reit were subscribed about 2.5 times at the close of its initial public offering on Wednesday.

The offer for Singapore’s first real estate investment trust that adheres to Islamic finance principles comprised about 508 million units at $1.05 apiece.

This included an international placement of about 432.5 million units (which was subscribed about 1.9 times) and a retail tranche of 75.5 million units made available to the Singapore public.

For the public offer, 11,159 valid applications for 314.1 million units were received for the 25.5 million units available – which translated to a subscription ratio of 12.3 times.

The remaining 50 million were allocated as reserved units.

‘The level of interest shown by the public as well as institutional investors is a signal of their confidence in what we believe to be the strong growth potential of Sabana Shari’ah Compliant Reit,’ said Kevin Xayaraj, chief executive and executive director (investments) of the trust’s manager.

‘We are proud that we have four quality cornerstone investors, and two of them are from the Middle East.’

The offer by what is also the world’s largest Syariah-compliant Reit is expected to raise $664 million.

Most of the proceeds will be used to pay for three industrial properties in Singapore that it plans to buy from its sponsor, two of which are chemical warehousing facilities.

Trading of the units is expected to start at 2pm today.

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Singapore Branch, is the sole financial adviser. HSBC, United Overseas Bank Limited and Daiwa Capital Markets Singapore Limited are the joint global coordinators, issue managers, bookrunners and underwriters.