KEY POINTS:
AMP NZ Office Trust's $70 million fundraising deal closed over-subscribed yesterday morning with the high kiwi dollar cited as one of the factors behind the deal's success.
Rob Lang, executive manager of the trust, said the bulk of buyers were New Zealand institutions and investors but a quarter
were overseas investors.
The high dollar had helped, he said, as investors searched for defensive stocks to shield themselves from the export sector suffering under the weight of the currency burden.
"It's good to be over-subscribed and to get offshore interest as well as keen New Zealand interest," Lang said.
"With the rising dollar, a lot of the export businesses are facing challenges with their earnings, profits and sales so investors are looking for other opportunities on NZX, particularly investments with growth.
"The office trust looks to be a safe haven because it has domestic earnings which show growth and has defensive characteristics."
After the release of the consumer price index on Wednesday, the kiwi jumped to its highest level since it was floated 22 years ago, rising to almost US75c. The $1.4 billion trust went into a trading halt on Wednesday morning, saying it needed to replace expensive BNZ and Westpac debt by issuing 52,238,806 units at $1.34 each, a 3.6 per cent discount on the trading price.
The trust had borrowed the $70 million at a punitive 8.1 per cent floating interest rate and said it wanted to avoid the steeply rising interest rates. "The private placement is a capital management initiative to refinance recent acquisitions and provide the trust with future balance sheet capacity," the trust said.
The listed landlord needed the money to fund the $33 million purchase of Deloitte House in Auckland which has been funded by short term debt, to provide balance sheet debt capacity to fund further investment and to retire additional short term debt to reduce interest rate exposure.
"AMP Property Securities Fund has expressed its intention to subscribe for its pro rata share in the private placement. Other related and/or associated parties of Anzo may be approached to participate in the placement," Lang said in an investor presentation issued on Wednesday.
"Multiplex will not be subscribing for its pro rata share, however, it continues to actively support Anzo. The private placement is to qualifying institutions and habitual investors."
Multiplex owns 17.4 per cent of the trust. The placement was not underwritten but was managed by First NZ Capital and Macquarie Securities (New Zealand).
Done deal
Wednesday: $70 million deal opened.
Yesterday: Offer closed over-subscribed.
Next Tuesday: Settlement and allocation due.
Next Thursday: New units trade on NZX