AFTER extending the closing date of the additional public offer (APO) to June 10, Kingston Properties Limited (KPREIT) successfully raised $1.552 billion (US$10 million) from more than 2,500 applications.

This was the company’s latest fund-raising effort as it aims to hit its target of one million square feet under ownership (from its current 479,000 square feet at the end of 2021). The company originally targeted $1.5 billion, with an option to upsize the offer to $2.25 billion. It also served as a way to grow its shareholder base beyond the 600 range. This was below the $2-billion rights issue it collected in November 2019.

The offer was priced at $7.50 per share which translates to around 206.93 million new shares to be issued. KPREIT had 677,652,928 outstanding ordinary shares at the end of March, which should bring the new total to 884.59 million ordinary shares. VM Wealth was the lead broker for the offer which was underwritten up to $500 million. All applicants will receive their allotments in full.

“The success of this offer is further evidence of the confidence that the investing community has in the company and our vision. We decided to extend the deadline of this offer as several institutional investors indicated that they required additional time to complete their analysis and approval processes, which in the end resulted in the offer being slightly oversubscribed,” said Kevin Richards, chief executive officer of Kingston Properties Limited.

Of the total raised, $700 million will go towards paying down a bridge loan owed to VM Investments Limited, with the remaining proceeds going towards the development of a 1.7-acre property in Cross Roads and a half-acre property on Dumfries Road, both in St Andrew. The Cross Roads industrial warehouse development is expected to require $650 million in capital while the Dumfries Road development is to be a multi-storey office development in New Kingston.

KPREIT had 94 per cent occupancy at the end of 2021 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 43.88 per cent at the end of March. That ratio is expected to fall after the bridge loan repayment and increased equity base. This will give the company more capital to complete the various projects it has slated to be completed, including the US$3.13-million Gum Tree development in the Cayman Islands which is expected to be completed by October. KPREIT paid a 40 per cent deposit on the pre-construction units in 2021.

KPREIT’s first-quarter revenue grew by 12 per cent to US$797,770 ($122.68 million) and earned US$716,279 ($110.15 million) in net profit, a 15 per cent improvement over US$623,338. Its asset base stood at US$50.95 million ($7.83 billion), with cash and cash equivalents of US$3.05 million. Its total liabilities were US$17.60 million with total debt at US$17.08 million. Shareholders’ equity closed the period at US$33.35 million. Its share price closed at $7.60 which gave it a market capitalisation of $5.15 billion.