Ascendas Reit

Ascendas Reit: to lift halt at 9am.
Says it is buying a property at Biopolis from its sponsor, Ascendas, for $125.6m. Mgt guides for the latest property purchase to be yield accretive, to add 0.03 cts to DPU for FYMar10 on an annualized pro forma basis, assuming funding with 40/60 debt-equity ratio…

Separately, AReit will issue 206.2m new units (11% of existing shares out) at $1.94 apiece to raise ~$400m in gross proceeds. The final placement price is in the middle of the indicative price range of $1.91-1.96 announced earlier, and is at a 4.9% discount to last close at $2.04. The placement was 2.55x oversubscribed. The bulk of the proceeds will go towards buying the Biopolis property, while $117.6m will be used for the forward purchase of a property in Shanghai announced earlier,… $97m for asset enhancement works at other properties, and $35.9m to fund a development project.
Pending the deployment of the net proceeds from the private placement, the aggregate leverage could go down to 25.1%, vs 32.6% (assuming recent revaluation gains of $307.6 m are taken into account)…

Lastly, AReit added that it is in talks to purchase a portfolio of properties worth around $200m, and the transaction might be completed in the next 3-6 months.
Reit last traded at 6.8% FY11E yield.

Post announcement, Street mostly retains Overweight/Neutral ratings, with TP ranging btwn $2.15 - 2.55.