On July 19th, 2019, Prime US REIT successfully completed its initial public offering and listing on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX), with an offering size of US$612 million (pre-shoe). It is the first office REIT on SGX positioning at class A office assets across non-gateway cities with high growth rate in the US. It is also the largest offering on SGX in the year to date. CICC acted as Joint Bookrunner and Underwriter for this transaction. 

The IPO portfolio comprises 11 class A office buildings in San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Denver, St. Louis, Dallas, San Antonio, Philadelphia, Washington and Atlanta, with an aggregate net lettable area of 3.4 million sq ft, and an average occupancy rate of 96.7%. As of 31 December 2018, the IPO portfolio is valued at US$1.2 billion. The REIT offers a distribution yield of 7.4% for Forecast Period 2019 and 7.6% for Projection Year 2020. The offering attracts high-quality cornerstone investors including AT Capital, Keppel Capital controlled by Singapore state-owned Keppel and Singapore Press Holdings, etc.

The sponsor of the REIT, KBS Asia Partners, is established by the Bren and the Schreiber, founders of KBS, one of the largest commercial real estate managers in the US. As of 31 December 2018, KBS managed US$11.6 billion worth of assets, and has invested or managed US$25.9 billion of assets, acquired 158.6 million sq ft with US$ 38.7 billion transactional volume since inception. 

As the only Chinese bank in this transaction, CICC fully mobilized its global sales and wealth management network leveraging its wide client base. Through in-depth conversation with investors, CICC helped investors better appreciate the investment merits of REIT product under the current market condition, and played a vital role in securing demand from high-quality family offices and individuals, which contributes to the successful closing of the deal despite the challenging market window.

The IPO of Prime US REIT is another classic example of CICC rendering services to international clients. As a Chinese bank that has completed multiple US assets REIT IPOs, CICC secures its leading position in the REIT IPO league table in this area.

As a leading investment bank with “Chinese Roots and International Reach”, CICC will continue to utilize its capital market expertise as well as its seamless cooperation of onshore and offshore businesses, and continue to provide high-quality financial services for more enterprises.