Retail king Brett Blundy has courted institutional investors ahead of a second bid to float the Aventus Retail Property Trust, after a $316 million bookbuild fell over on September 10.
The smaller $278 million IPO, backed by a further $25 million commitment by Mr Blundy (increasing his and Aventus CEO Darren Holland's share to 34 per cent), comes with lower management fees, a higher forecast distribution and a two-thirds reduction in the $20 million change of management provision fee, which irked so many investors.
Subject to a further favourable response from institutional investors on Tuesday, a product disclosure statement and offer document are due to be lodged with ASIC on Wednesday this week. Retail investors will be given the first opportunity to buy in at $2 a share from October 8 till mid-October.
After this period, an institutional bookbuild will follow, with a listing pencilled in for late October.
The proposed trust will hold $900 million worth of homemaker centres drawn together from five unlisted funds. Macquarie Private Wealth is again the lead manager alongside Morgans and Taylor Collison.
Under the new offer, the base management fee has been cut from 70 to 60 basis points of gross asset value, falling to 50 basis points if the value of the assets reaches $2 billion.
And investors will now only have to pay out on one year of management fees, rather than three, if a change of management occurs within the 10-year management contract.
To further sweeten the deal, the forecast distribution yield has been raised from seven to 7.25 per cent in FY16 and from 7.25 to 7.5 per cent in FY17. But gearing will be higher.
With 278 million shares to be issued, Aventus would have a market cap of $556 million at the start of trading. Mr Blundy and Mr Holland declined to comment.
