CapitaMall Trust (CMT) has acquired Clarke Quay from its sister company, CapitaMalls Asia, for $268 million.
According to CMT, it has the capacity and adequate financial flexibility to finance the transaction, which is slated to be completed by July 2010.
Assuming that the transaction is completely funded by debt, CMT will have a gearing of 33.1 percent – still within the 30 to 35 percent target range.
James Koh, Chairman of CMT, said that the acquisition will permit unitholders of CMT to capitalize on the growing entertainment and lifestyle demand in Singapore.
It will increase the asset size of CMT to $7.6 billion from $7.4 billion as of December 2009.
The acquisition is considered to be an interested party transaction (IPT) under the regulation of SGX, as CapitaMalls Asia is CMT’s controlling unitholder.
As the IPT exceeds 5 percent of the latest audited net tangible assets of CMT, the acquisition is subject to the approval of the unitholders of CMT at an extraordinary general meeting, which will be held at an appropriate time.
Two of the property’s independent valuations have been obtained from Knight Frank and CBRE, in accordance to the rules.