10 March 2022– AREIT, Inc. (AREIT), the first Philippine Real Estate Investment Trust, will enter a second property-for-share swap with its sponsor, Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI). The transaction will involve six Cebu-based office buildings with an aggregate value of P11,257,889,535.91, in exchange for 252,136,383 AREIT primary common shares, as validated by a third-party fairness opinion.
The six buildings are eBloc Towers 1 to 4 located at Cebu IT Park, ACC Tower and Tech Tower located at Ayala Center Cebu. The office buildings have a total gross leasable area (GLA) of 124,299 square meters with an overall occupancy rate of 97%, leased by major BPOs in the country.
The transaction is subject to the approval of AREIT shareholders at their annual meeting on 21 April 2022 and pertinent regulatory bodies. ALI and AREIT are targeting to complete the said transaction within the year.
Since its IPO, AREIT delivered on its growth plans, resulting in 92% total shareholder return from dividend yield and price appreciation. AREIT started with 153 thousand square meters equivalent to P30 billion of Assets Under Management (AUM) in 2020. By December 2021, this has grown to 549 thousand square meters, equivalent to P53 billion in AUM. With this new asset infusion, AREIT will grow further and reach 673 thousand square meters or P64 billion in AUM in 2022 – a 213% increase since AREIT went public. This growth exceeds its target to double in size within two years from its IPO.
“We are focused on delivering our commitment to grow our assets, diversify our geographic and tenant base and create more shareholder value with increasing dividends and price appreciation. With this new asset infusion, we foresee AREIT’s dividend per share to increase, in addition to the recently concluded asset infusions last year”, said AREIT President and CEO Carol T. Mills.
Last 24 February 2022, AREIT’s Board of Directors approved the declaration of dividends of P0.47 per share for the fourth quarter of 2021, to be distributed on 25 March 2022, to stockholders on record as of 11 March 2022. AREIT’s dividend per share increased from P0.44 in the third quarter to P0.47 in the fourth quarter after concluding its first asset-share swap of P15 billion last October 2021. AREIT’s full-year dividends from its 2021 income totaled P1.77 per share, a 34% increase from 2020 and 12% higher than its REIT plan projection during the IPO. With this prospective infusion of Cebu assets, AREIT’s dividend per share is projected to increase further.
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