Sereit to raise more funding

Picture: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Picture: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Published Oct 11, 2016

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Pretoria - Schroder European Real Estate Investment Trust (Sereit), which listed on the London Stock Exchange and JSE in December, is planning to do a further capital raise to fund its investment programme.

Chairman Julian Berney said yesterday that the firm had successfully delivered on its strategy at the initial public offering (IPO) of investing in assets that provided attractive income distribution with potential for long-term income and capital growth through active asset management. He believed it was an opportune time to take the next steps in Seriet’s growth strategy.

“With our focused property strategy and strong pipeline of assets identified, we are well positioned to take advantage of the fundamentals driving long-term performance in major European cities,” he said.

Public offering

Sereit raised a total of R2.4 billion equity in its initial public offering in December.

But the company said it continued to identify attractive investment opportunities in the target European markets and its current near-term investment pipeline was about 150 million euros compared with cash currently available for investment of about 45 million euros.

It added the current pipeline of acquisitions had a net initial yield in excess of the initial yield on the current portfolio and would provide further asset diversification.

“To that end, mindful of the growth objective of the company and with the benefits of greater economies of scale, enhanced liquidity and improved portfolio diversification that the acquisition of new assets will bring, the board is proposing this issue of new ordinary shares,” it said.

Further details about the placing, including the price, was expected to be announced on October 20.

Sereit shares fell 6.32 percent yesterday to close at R21.50.

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