Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust (MPACT) plans to divest Mapletree Anson for $775 million and channel the proceeds to pare down debt, joining a growing list of REITs and trusts divesting assets in a bid to ease balance sheet strain.
The sale to an unnamed third party is at a gain of $10 million over the property's valuation as at March 31. It will also be a premium of $95.0 million above the original purchase price of $680 million paid back in 2012.
MPACT is expecting net proceeds of $762 million and can help reduce its aggregate leverage from 40.5% as at March 31 to 37.6% on a pro forma basis.
It can also help improve MPACT's adjusted interest coverage ratio from 2.9 times to 3.3 times on a pro forma basis.
With a lower gearing level, MPACT's debt headroom can increase to $3.9 billion from $3.2 billion as at March 31.
MPACT says the divestment can help generate around 1.5% accretion to FY2023 - FY2024 DPU on a pro forma basis.