Robinsons Land unlocks P7.75B from REIT      

MANILA, Philippines – Gokongwei-led Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) sold P7.75 billion worth of its shares in its real estate investment trust (REIT) arm, making room for possibly more asset infusions as the latter diversifies its portfolio.In a regulatory filing on Tuesday, RLC said it had sold 1 billion common shares of RL Commercial REIT Inc. (RCR) at P7.75 each, a 5.14-percent discount from RCR’s closing price of P8.17 on Monday.

READ: Malls, hotels lift Robinsons Land income by 13%

The block sale was anchored by “high-quality long-only institutional local and international investors,” the developer said.

Proceeds from the transaction will be settled on Sept. 25, while RLC is set to disclose its reinvestment plan detailing the use of proceeds.RCR’s public ownership level now stands at 42.57 percent, or above the 33.33-percent minimum requirement for listed REITs.The block sale gives RLC more room to inject additional assets into RCR without shrinking the latter’s public float below the minimum level.This also follows RLC’s recent infusion of P30.67-billion worth of assets into RCR in a property-for-share swap, which involved nine commercial projects spanning 324,108 square meters (sq m) of gross leasable area.These are Robinsons Dasmariñas, Robinsons Starmills, Robinsons General Trias, Robinsons Cybergate Cebu, Robinsons Tacloban, Robinsons Malolos, Robinsons Santiago, Robinsons Magnolia and Robinsons Tuguegarao.In exchange, RLC got 3.83 billion RCR common shares at P8 each.RCR’s portfolio is currently at 1.15 million sq m, composed of 21 mall assets and 17 office assets.Earlier, RCR said it had more room to expand its portfolio in the next three years.RLC has the potential to infuse around 1.3 million sq m of mall space, as well as 250,000 sq m of office space and 300,000 sq m of logistics space, according to RCR president Jericho Go.The REIT, whose portfolio was previously office-dominant, preferred to get “stabilized properties,” or those that have been profitable for at least three years and have high occupancy rates.RCR data show that the occupancy rate of its assets stood at 96 percent in May.