Kiwi Income raises $50m

Kiwi Income Property Trust (KIPT) says it successfully completed a $50 million institutional placement announced to the market yesterday.

The company said today the placement involved about 56.9m ordinary units at a price of 87.9c per unit.

The price was an 8.4 per cent discount to the closing price of units on Tuesday, the day before the placement.

Proceeds of the equity raising would be used to reduce debt and strengthen the trust's financial position, KIPT said.

Before the placement, bank debt represented about 33 per cent of total assets. The effect of the institutional placement and recent asset sales would be to reduce that gearing level to about 29 per cent.

Chris Gudgeon, chief executive of trust manager Kiwi Income Properties Ltd, said the placement closed well oversubscribed with strong support from existing domestic and international investors as well as a number of new investors to the register.

A trading halt placed on KIPT yesterday was lifted.

- NZPA