John Dakin. Photo / Martin Sykes
One of the largest capital-raisings for shares this year has closed fully subscribed less than 48 hours after opening its book-build to institutional investors and retail brokers.
Property fund Goodman Property Trust announced it would raise $275 million in capital on Monday, starting with a two-day book-building period
to set the market price for the new shares.
By lunchtime yesterday the trust had raised $229 million - $2 million over its planned limit - leaving only $46 million left for the public offer, which opens on November 20.
But while the take-up was positive, the book-build price was set at $1.43 - the lowest point in its expected range of $1.43 to $1.47.
Goodman Property Trust chief executive John Dakin said the price reflected what had happened in the markets around the world over the last couple of days.
"It was not good timing in terms of the market but the book-build did what it was designed to do and that was test the market and set the price."
The NZX fell earlier this week, following steep drops on Wall St.
Dakin said he was delighted at where the capital-raising had ended up.
"Given that the market has been choppy. It shows there is plenty of capital out there for good-quality investments."
The raising saw Australian arm Goodman Group take up its pro-rata limit to maintain a 28 per cent shareholding in the trust, although it declined the option of a further $80 million, which would have pushed its stake to 35 per cent.
Dakin said the offer was 75 per cent backed by domestic investors and 25 per cent backed by overseas investors, a foreign level of support that was better than expected.
The money has been earmarked to buy a 50 per cent stake in the Highbrook Development company from Goodman Group, develop existing properties owned by the trust and reduce its debt levels from 37.7 per cent to 31.4 per cent.
The company will hold a shareholder meeting on November 30 to vote on the Highbrook acquisition because of its related party nature. Shareholders will also be asked to vote on changes to the trust's performance fee and Goodman Group's involvement as an underwriter.
The capital-raising is expected to push the property trust into the top 10 companies on the NZX 10 index, with a market capitalisation of $1.3 billion.
