Megaworld Corporation, the country’s largest developer and lessor of office spaces, is jumping on the REIT (real estate investment trust) bandwagon with the planned P27.3 billion initial public offering of subsidiary MREIT Inc.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Megaworld said MREIT has submitted its registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the IPO.
Megaworld’s REIT plans to offer secondary shares of up to 1.24 billion common shares at an Offer Price of up to P22.00 per share.
“The proposed Offer is expected to raise gross proceeds of up to P27.3 billion, assuming full exercise of the overallotment option, which would be the biggest REIT offering in the Philippines to date,” Megaworld said.
It added that, This would represent up to 49 percent of the total issued and outstanding shares of MREIT assuming full exercise of the overallotment option.
Megaworld intends to reinvest the net proceeds from the Offer in 16 projects all over the country.
Through a property-for-share swap, Megaworld injected into MREIT, Inc. a portfolio of 10 office, retail, and hotel assets with an aggregate gross leasable area of 224,430.80 square meters.
These properties are located in three prime townships of Megaworld - Eastwood City in Quezon City, McKinley Hill in Taguig City, and Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo City.
The MREIT portfolio of assets include 1800 Eastwood Avenue, 1880 Eastwood Avenue, E-Commerce Plaza, One World Square, Two World Square, Three World Square, 8/10 Upper McKinley, 18/20 Upper McKinley, One Techno Place, Richmonde Tower, and Richmonde Hotel Iloilo.
“Our REIT includes properties in three of our most sought-after premier township developments of Eastwood City, McKinley Hill, and Iloilo Business Park, which are home to around 200,000 BPO and other office workers today,” said MREIT President and CEO Kevin Andrew L. Tan.
He added that, “Our ‘tried-and-tested’ signature concept of the township has attracted over 200 BPO and multinational companies to locate with us through the years since we started our first-ever Eastwood cyberpark in 1999.”
BDO Capital & Investment Corporation (BDO Capital), Credit Suisse (Singapore) Ltd., UBS AG Singapore Branch, and DBS Bank Ltd., were mandated as Joint Global Coordinators for the IPO and BDO Capital as Domestic Lead Underwriter.
To date, Megaworld has the largest portfolio of leasable office spaces in the Philippines with around 1.4-million square meters of office properties in 10 major cities across the country, according to Leechiu Property Consultants.
It also holds the largest office leasable properties in the entire Bonifacio Global City, the country’s fastest-growing business district today.
The Andrew Tan-led company ended 2020 with P10.4-billion in office rental revenues amidst the global pandemic.