AME REIT's IPO public portion oversubscribed by 2.46 times

• The IPO exercise entails an offering of 254.8 million units, representing 49% of total 520 million units in AME REIT.

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 1): AME Real Estate Investment Trust’s (AME REIT) initial public offering (IPO) for the Malaysian public portion was oversubscribed by 2.46 times.

AME REIT is slated for listing on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia on Sept 20.

The IPO exercise entails an offering of 254.8 million units, representing 49% of total 520 million units in AME REIT.

For the institutional offering, AME REIT received demand for a total of 459.2 million units at the top end of the bookbuilding range of RM1.15 per unit from the Malaysian institutional investors and selected investors (excluding Bumiputera investors approved by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), said I REIT Managers Sdn Bhd in a statement on Thursday (Sept 1). I REIT Managers is the management company of AME REIT.

Upon conclusion of the book building process, the institutional price has been fixed at RM1.13 per unit.

“The retail offering comprises 10.4 million units made available to the Malaysian public, 7.8 million units to the eligible directors and employees of AME Elite Consortium Bhd and its subsidiaries (pink form offering), and restricted offer-for-sale (ROFS) of 128.1 million units to the shareholders of AME Elite (entitled AME shareholders) on the basis of one unit for every five ordinary shares held in AME Elite on Aug 15, 2022,” AME REIT stated.

AME REIT received a total of 1,567 applications for 36 million units for its offering of 10.4 million units for application by the Malaysian public.

The 7.8 million units made available under the pink form offering were fully subscribed.

Meanwhile, 121.7 million units of the ROFS portion representing 95% of the total ROFS units were subscribed by the entitled AME shareholders and the remaining 6.4 million units have been fully covered by the Malaysian institutional investors and selected investors, pursuant to the clawback and reallocation provisions set out in the prospectus of AME REIT dated Aug 17, 2022.

The final retail price is fixed at RM1.13 per unit, which is two sen lower than the retail price of RM1.15 per unit. The difference of two sen per unit will be refunded to all successful subscribers for the retail offering.

Simon Lee Sai Boon, chairman and executive director of I REIT Managers, said the positive response from institutional investors and the Malaysian public are a vote of confidence for AME’s unique positioning as a sponsor-led REIT with positive potential of strong inorganic growth.

“With industrial space solutions provider AME Elite as our sponsor, AME REIT will be able to leverage on their future property development projects as a ready source for high-quality tenanted industrial properties, workers dormitories and warehouses for acquisition.

“Moreover, our prospects would be further enhanced by the mandate to acquire third-party properties beyond the sponsor’s undertakings.

The management is pleased to fix the price at RM1.13, balancing between optimising proceeds for the sponsor AME Elite and giving a higher yield to AME REIT subscribers,” said Simon.

There will be no proceeds raised by AME REIT, as the IPO does not involve any issuance of new units.