The Philippine Real Estate Investment Trust (AREIT) and Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) will have a third property-for-share swap involving P22.479 billion worth of flagship offices and malls in vis-à-vis 607,559,380 AREIT primary common shares.

In a disclosure in the local bourse on Wednesday, AREIT, Inc. said the swap deal with its sponsor will cover assets located in the Manila central business district such as the latest one, which is the One Ayala Avenue East and West BPO Towers at the corner of Ayala Avenue and Edsa.

Other properties include the Glorietta 1 and 2 mall wing, the business process outsourcing (BPO) buildings at Ayala Center, and the MarQuee mall in Angeles City, Pampanga province.

The company said these assets have a combined gross leasable area (GLA) of 190,000 square meters (sqm), an overall occupancy rate of 99 percent, and a weighted average lease expiry (WALE) of 14.5 years.”

“ALI and AREIT are targeting to complete the transaction within the year,” it said, citing that AREIT’s Board of Directors approved it on March 7, 2023 although it is subject to the approval of shareholders during their annual meeting on April 26, 2023.

The company has surpassed its growth plans since its initial public offering (IPO) in July 2020 and has registered a 52 percent total shareholder return.

To date, the company has 673,000 sqm. assets under management (AUM), equivalent to P64 billion, up from the 153,000 sqm, equivalent to P30 billion, in 2020.

The company said “this new infusion in 2023 will almost triple the Company’s AUM to P87 billion and boost its GLA more than five-fold to 863 thousand sqm from the IPO, making AREIT one of the largest and the most diversified commercial REIT in the Philippines.”

AREIT president and chief executive officer Carol Mills said “the rebound of commercial businesses is an opportunity for AREIT to widely diversify its assets with more retail buildings.”

“The infusion of Glorietta 1 and 2 mall and BPO buildings, as well as the brand new One Ayala Avenue BPO towers, is testament to AREIT as Ayala Land’s flagship REIT,” she said.

CURRENTPH NEWS SERVICE