Westfield Holdings said yesterday it had raised $2.01 billion from its public offer to establish Westfield Retail Trust.
The new trust was announced in early November and will hold 50% of Westfield’s 54 Australian and New Zealand shopping centres.
Westfield said its public offer of new units in Westfield Retail Trust closed on Monday of this week and raised $2.01 billion after being priced at $2.75 per unit.
The raising was well in excess of the $1.75 billion underwritten, Westfield said in a short statement to the ASX.
But that was well short of its $3.5 billion target as investors seem to be growing concerned about the retail climate.
Westfield had planned to raise $2 billion from new investors and $1.5 billion from existing Westfield shareholders.
Now Westfield Holdings securityholders meet tomorrow in Sydney to approve the split, and subject to that, treading in the new securities on the ASX will start on Monday under the code, WRT (and on a deferred basis).
The shortfall in funding means the new trust won’t have the same financial firepower that many in the market had thought it would have when the split was revealed at the start of November.
Westfield said the proceeds would be used to pay down drawn amounts under an acquisition facility for the offering.
"The Retail Trust will have a conservative gearing ratio of 21.5 per cent as a result, Westfield said.
"Earnings per stapled unit will be 18.3 cents and distributions per stapled unit will be about 16.5 cents for the year to December 31, 2011," the company said.
Westfield announced a proposed restructuring to create the Westfield Retail Trust on November 3 and said it would be listed separately to Westfield Group.
Westfield Holdings securities rose 5c to $12.33 yesterday.
And Stockland announced yesterday that it had done a deal that will see it develop a new city to the north of Melbourne over the next 30-plus years/
The site is at Kalkallo, 35 kilometres north of the Melbourne CBD.
Stockland said the land fronts the Hume Highway and the Sydney to Melbourne rail line, and straddles three key growth corridors: Hume, Whittlesea and Mitchell.
"The private vendor has agreed to a highly capital efficient structure based upon a 31 year call option structure which allows Stockland to acquire the property in a number of staged parcels on largely deferred payment terms.
"Subject to planning approvals, the land is expected to be brought to market over the next 30 years with the first settlements due to occur in late 2014 or early 2015.
The group’s residential chief executive Mark Hunter said the Lockerbie development will benefit from being close to Stockland’s Highlands community development.
"The location of the site provides an ideal template for the delivery of a sustainable new community and will secure our position in this key growth corridor for many years to come," he said.
"The deferred payment terms are in line with our focus on efficient use of capital and we’ve secured an exclusive option to acquire and develop each stage of the project according to market demand."
The company said in yesterday’s statement that the "Lockerbie site is a 1,121 hectare land parcel with a total end land value of around $4 billion.
"The proposed masterplan includes around 11,500 residential lots, plus an 85 hectare city centre including provision for a large regional shopping centre, neighbourhood centres and retirement living, as well as schools, healthcare, childcare and other community facilities."
Stockland shares rose 3c to $3.70 yesterday.
