Both issues offered at steep discounts; CapitaLand looking at acquisitions, CMT to pay off debt
By UMA SHANKARI
Singapore's biggest property developer CapitaLand and its listed retail trust CapitaMall Trust (CMT) yesterday announced two rights issues totalling some $3.07 billion.
CapitaLand said that it will raise $1.84 billion in a 1-for-2 rights issue to build up its war chest to $6 billion, from $4.2 billion now, as it remains on the lookout for acquisition opportunities in markets such as Singapore and China. The developer's fourth-quarter net profit slumped 88 per cent.
And CMT, Singapore's largest real estate investment trust which is 29.7 per cent owned by CapitaLand, will raise $1.23 billion in a 9-for-10 rights offer. It will use most of the proceeds to pay off $956.2 million of debt due this year.
Market rumour that CapitaLand was planning a rights issue first surfaced early last month, depressing the company's shares.
CapitaLand is the second major Singapore company to raise money through a rights issue in recent months. In late December, DBS Group said that it planned to raise about $4 billion to bulk up its capital base. Both CapitaLand and DBS count Singapore investment company Temasek Holdings as their largest shareholder.
'This year is turning out to be a race in raising funds through rights issues and has depressed CapitaLand's shares for a while,' Nicole Sze, a Singapore-based investment analyst at Bank Julius Baer & Co, told Bloomberg.
But while CapitaLand's rights issue was expected, CMT's announcement took some by surprise. Analysts were expecting it to just look for debt refinancing. Another one of CapitaLand's Reits, CapitaCommercial Trust, recently said that it had refinanced at attractive rates.
Another element that caught most analysts by surprise was the steep discounts at which the rights issues are being done.
CapitaLand's rights offer is priced at $1.30 a share, which represents a 45 per cent discount to its closing price of $2.36 a share last Friday, the last day that the stock was traded. The offer price is also at a 54 per cent discount to CapitaLand's post-rights issue net tangible asset (NTA) of $2.80 per share.
Likewise, CMT is making its rights offer at 82 cents a unit - 43.4 per cent lower than last Friday's closing price of $1.45 and also 50.3 per cent lower that CMT's expected net asset value per unit once the rights issue is completed.
'CapitaLand and CMT could be pricing the rights issues lower to entice their shareholders to take up their allotments in the current weak market,' said one analyst.
Both the developer and its trust are expected to be in a better position to grow once the rights issues are completed.
CapitaLand said that the 'pre-emptive' rights issue will provide it with 'greater financial capacity to pursue acquisitions and investment opportunities that may arise'.
'We will also be well-positioned for any mergers and acquisitions opportunities that might arise,' said CapitaLand chief executive Liew Mun Leong. 'We have a number of proposals on the table that we are studying but we are not ready to make any announcements yet.'
He identified Singapore, China and Japan as attractive markets for acquisitions, and also said that CapitaLand is on the lookout for distressed assets.
CMT, on the other hand, will use the bulk of the proceeds to repay borrowings due this year, which total $956.2 million. The balance will be used to pay for asset enhancement initiatives as well as for general corporate and working capital purposes.
DMG & Partners Securities analyst Brandon Lee said that the rights issue puts CMT 'in the clear when it comes to its debt' - which means that CMT will not have to compete with other property trusts for financing in the tight credit environment.
Lim Beng Chee, chief executive of CMT's manager, said that the trust chose to go with a rights issue rather than look for refinancing for its loans as it was looking at the 'longer-term'. The rights issue is expected to provide the trust with greater financial flexibility for future opportunities, such as asset enhancement works at Jurong Entertainment Centre and the newly-acquired The Atrium@Orchard, he said.
Analysts also said that the trust will be better positioned to make acquisitions after the rights issue as its gearing is expected to fall from 43.2 per cent to 29.1 per cent. This will make it easier for CMT to raise money in future. CapitaLand similarly said that its net gearing will be reduced from 0.47 times now to 0.28 times after the rights issue. But the developer's NTA per share will fall from $3.57 to $2.80.
CapitaLand has agreed to subscribe for up to 60 per cent of the total size of CMT's rights issue, including its rights entitlement based on its current 29.7 per cent stake. If CapitaLand takes up 60 per cent of the rights issue, its stake in CMT will climb to 44.1 per cent. The developer said that it will not use any proceeds from its own rights issue to buy any units in CMT's rights issue, and will instead use existing cash reserves.
CapitaLand also said that Temasek Holdings, which has a direct stake of 39.7 per cent in the company, will subscribe to all rights shares that it is entitled to.
Shares of both CapitaLand and CMT resume trading today.
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