This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
HOLIDAY parks and lifestyle communities operator Aspen Group has launched a $36.34 million equity raising that will bring down its gearing and position itself for acquisition opportunities.
The fully underwritten institutional placement will have an issue price of $1.58 per security, representing a 4.5% discount to the ASX-listed group’s last close and a 4.2% distribution yield.
A non-underwritten security purchase plan will raise a further $3 million.
Aspen’s gearing will come down from 28% to 20% as a result, below its long-term target range of 30 to 40%.
“We continue to see a range of interesting acquisition opportunities and we are well placed to deliver on our investment strategy. Being well below our target gearing range gives us significant acquisition capacity, and we will deploy this selectively into quality opportunities,” said joint CEO John Carter.
He said Aspen remains well positioned to grow operating earnings and/or net asset value per security over the medium term by at least 10% per annum. Over the first two months of FY22, Aspen has reported a 111% uplift in revenue to $12.34 million and a 104% increase in total operating and developing income to $5.44 million, while operating earnings are up 33% to $4.13 million and earnings per security up by 112% to 2.66c per security.
