After more than 10 years, the application for the Philippines’ first REIT listing was finally filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

After the release of the revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 9856 or the Real Estate Investment Trust Act of 2009 last Jan. 20, 2020, Ayala Land, Inc. announced that its subsidiary AREIT Inc. (formerly AyalaLand REIT Inc. and One Dela Rosa Property Development Inc.) filed its application for a REIT offering to the SEC.

The REIT Act was passed in 2009 to provide the regulatory framework for companies to list their real property assets on the Philippine Stock Exchange as a new vehicle to raise funds for investments.

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Contentious provisions on minimum public ownership and taxation prevented prospective REIT proponents from listing, but this was finally settled by the amended IRR and the BIR Revenue Regulation No 3-2020, which removed  the 12% VAT previously imposed on the transfer of properties to a REIT in exchange for its shares, provided the exchange should result in an acquisition by the transferor of at least 51% of the outstanding voting capital stocks of the transferee.

Based on its application, AREIT will offer up to 478,639,700 shares, consisting of 47,864,000 new common shares, 430,775,700 existing common shares and up to 23,932,000 optional shares for overallotment.

The maximum price of the offer at P30.05 per share to raise a total of P1.356 billion in net proceeds to be used for future investments in real estate properties in Metro Manila and other key regions in the country.

The company’s portfolio consists of three commercial buildings in Makati City, namely Solaris One, Ayala North Exchange, and McKinley Exchange.