National Storage REIT is gaining 11 storage centers in Australia for A$102 million, to be partly funded with proceeds from a A$50 million institutional placement.
The company also provided an operational update, saying that a review undertaken by its board and senior management determined that its COO's responsibilities will be allocated across the other senior executives. It said that COO Peter Greer, who has been with the company for two decades, has been made redundant, effective Dec. 31.
On the property acquisitions, the trust settled on a A$35 million deal for six storage centers, one of which is a development site. It has also agreed or is under exclusive due diligence to buy five more storage centers in a deal expected to be completed in February 2018. The 5,500 storage units offer about 62,000 square meters of net lettable area.
Aside from the planned A$50 million placement, the trust will use existing debt facilities and an up to A$15 million security purchase plan to fund the planned acquisitions.
National Storage REIT added that it also started discussions for a further A$35 million tranche of storage assets, which, if completed, will boost the company's portfolio with 3,000 storage units covering approximately 35,000 square meters of net leasable area.
The A$50 million placement of new securities will be conducted Dec. 13 through a book-building exercise and roughly 33.3 million securities are being offered at A$1.50 apiece. The planned security purchase plan, meanwhile, will be issued at the same price to eligible security holders, with the offer slated to close Feb. 2, 2018.
The REIT also affirmed its fiscal full-year 2018 EPS guidance to be in the range of 9.6 cents to 10.1 cents. Fiscal first-half distribution is expected to reach 4.7 cents per security.
