Carsted Rosenberg Advises on Successful EUR 1.4 Billion IPO for Cromwell European REIT on SGX

The Australian stock exchange listed Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW) (Cromwell) successfully concluded an  initial public offering (IPO) of the Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust (CEREIT) on the Main Board of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (SGX). The transaction constitutes the first Euro denominated REIT on the SGX and the largest REIT IPO in Asia since 2013 by market capitalisation. The asset portfolio of CEREIT consists largely of office, light industrial and logistics buildings located in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands with an assessed total volume of EUR 1.354 billion. Cromwell had taken over the logistics specialist Valad from Blackstone in early 2015. Cromwell’s wholly-owned subsidiary Cromwell EREIT Management Pte. Ltd., the manager of CEREIT, raised gross proceeds of EUR 865.7 million.

CEREIT’s cornerstone investors include Cerberus Singapore, Hillsboro Capital, Ltd. and Mr Gordon Tang and Mrs Celine Tang. Goldman Sachs (Singapore) Pte. und UBS AG, Singapore Branch acted as Joint Issue Managers of the CEREIT IPO and Goldman Sachs, UBS AG, DBS Bank, Daiwa Capital Markets and CLSA Singapore acted as joint bookrunners and underwriters for the IPO advised by Allen & Overy, Singapore. Allen & Gledhill, Singapore acted as transaction counsel to CEREIT and the European team was lead by Clifford Chance, Germany as European lead counsel and included, Clifford Chance, Frankfurt, Clifford Chance, Amsterdam, Clifford Chance, Milan, Clifford Chance, Paris, Clifford Chance, Luxembourg, Clifford Chance, Warsaw, Clifford Chance, London, Clifford Chance, Düsseldorf, Clifford Chance, Munich, Carey Olsen, Jersey and Carsted Rosenberg, Copenhagen. Dentons Rodyk & Davidson acted as legal advisers to the trustee with Deloitte & Touche as reporting auditors, KPMG as independent tax advisers, Cushman & Wakefield Debenham Tie Leung and Colliers International as valuers of the portfolio.

With the CEREIT listing, Singapore has consolidated its appeal as a global hub for REITs and business trusts which offer alternatives to investors seeking returns in a low-yield global environment. Companies have raised about USD 3.22 billion via IPOs so far in 2017 on the SGX, the most since 2013, according to Thomson Reuters data.