Robinsons Land raised P8.5-B in RCR block sale

Robinsons Land [RLC 16.04 ?4.0%; 208% avgVol] [link] sold just over 1.725 billion shares of RL Commercial REIT [RCR 5.01 ?3.5%; 143% avgVol] in an overnight block sale after initiating a private sale process with BPI Capital.

> Who are the buyers?  Don’t know! But they’re unrelated third parties, as the sale increased RCR’s public float to 49.95%.

> Is that important?  Yes! By pushing more shares into public hands and increasing the public float, RCR how has the ability to engage in a share swap deal with its parent, RLC, to acquire new properties and grow the dividend without having to conduct a follow-on offering.

> Any news on the planned injections?  Interestingly, yes. RLC said in its disclosure that it plans to infuse properties from other asset classes, like “malls, hotels, and warehouses”. That’s interesting because RLC has been tight-lipped about its plans to this point, and speculation has been rising on what RCR will do given its slowly-degrading dividend due to its over-reliance on the commercial office tower sector.

MB BOTTOM-LINE: Not sure if this means that RLC plans to move quickly, or if it just felt like getting some public float headroom in this way was preferable to a noisy public offering process. RCR holders will be happy with the group’s increased openness about its intentions, and with the signal that the next injections will be from asset classes that have brighter near-term prospects than yet another batch of office towers