Home REIT has raised gross proceeds of £350 million through ‘a significantly oversubscribed’ initial issue.
”Given the strong level and quality of demand from investors in the capital raise, the board determined to increase the size of the initial issue from the target of approximately £262 million to £350 million,” said the company in a press release.
There is an ongoing critical need for homeless accommodation in the UK due to an increasing homeless population and a lack of available and affordable, high-quality, fit-for-purpose homes to address this societal issue, the company said.
Home REIT, which aims to provide suitable accommodation for homeless people, plans to deploy the net proceeds of the initial issue against the company’s c. £400 million acquisition pipeline.
“We are grateful to our existing shareholders and new investors for their support which has led to strong demand and resulted in us raising an upsized amount of £350 million. The proceeds of this capital raise will enable us to continue Home REIT’s mission of working with our tenant partners to provide critically needed accommodation for people at risk of homelessness in the UK in a sustainable way. Our focus now is to deploy the equity, growing the number of homes in the portfolio from our identified pipeline,” said Lynne Fennah, Chairman of Home REIT plc.
The fundrise is thought to be the largest maiden raise following an IPO, in terms of the % of issued share capital, for a REIT in recent years, doubling the size of the company and increasing the share count by 133%.
