Steady Stream of Assets Identified to Grow AmanahRaya REIT
Kuala Lumpur, February 26, 2007 – AmanahRaya Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), Malaysia’s first government owned company’s sponsored REIT, was today listed on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad ("Bursa Securities").
Today marks the official trading date of the entire 128,799,000 IPO units comprises of a Public Issue of 55.199 million units and an Offer for Sale of 73.600 million units. AmanahRaya REIT is expected to raise RM336 million from its initial public offering. From the Public Issue, 45.999 million new shares were allocated for private placement at RM 0.94 sen per unit while the remaining 9.2 million shares were offered to the Malaysian retail public at RM 0.895 sen per unit.
Currently, AmanahRaya REIT has eight properties with an aggregate value of RM341.8 million. The properties include five office complexes, two hotels and a factory building. The properties are located in Kedah and Langkawi in the North, and in the Klang Valley including locations such as Subang Jaya, Damansara Heights, Serdang and Kuala Lumpur. This will provide investors an exposure to a diverse geographical and sectorial portfolio that will cushion the impact of specific adversity in any one sector or locality.
Looking ahead, AmanahRaya-JMF Asset Management has already identified a steady stream of assets to ensure the continuous growth of their asset size to RM2 billion by 2008. In so doing, the Manager will be injecting five more properties worth approximately RM300 million within the next six to nine months, supported by other acquisition plan in both local and international markets.
“For the acquisition tranche, it will be financed via issuance of additional units, thus diluting the gearing to around 35%,” explained Datuk Mohamed Azahari, the Managing Director of AmanahRaya-JMF Asset Management.
“With the successful listing of AmanahRaya REIT, we will now look forward to growing our asset size and enhancing our yield with the acquisition of new properties. Other than identifying quality local properties to be added into our REIT, we will also be investing 30 percent of our Net Asset Value into foreign assets which could possibly double our REIT size to RM4 billion by 2010,” he added
“Our focused and professional management expertise will provide high value creation and continuous returns enhancement over time. We also strongly believe in pro-active property management with our partners to organically grow the asset, hence, further increase the yield. Additionally, we have also appointed professionals with expertise in property management and valuation, engineering, law and finance as members of the Investment Committee of AmanahRaya REIT to ensure a good conduct of corporate governance,” he added.
AmanahRaya REIT is expected to distribute to Unitholders 100% of the distributable income for the financial year 2007, 2008 and 2009. The profit forecast for its FYE 31 December 2007 is RM10.482 million; this translates to a possible yield of 7.27 percent for retail unit holders and 6.93 percent return to its institutional unit holders. From 2008 to 2009, the projected yields are 7.29 percent and 7.63 percent for the retail market while institutional investors stand to gain 6.94 percent and 7.27 percent respectively.
“We are in this for a long term and it is important for investors to also share this perspective as REITs are a consistent yielding, low risk instrument which provides unitholders with opportunities to grow,” added Datuk Azahari.
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