Robinsons Land [RLC 16.32 ?0.4%; 35% avgVol] [link] disclosed that it sold 318,902,800 shares of its REIT subsidiary, RL Commercial REIT [RCR 6.01 ?3.1%; 429% avgVol], in a block sale at P5.86/share for a total transaction value of approximately P1.87 billion. The share price was equivalent to a 5.3% discount from RCR’s closing price from the previous day. RLC said that the sale increased from 34.15% to 35.93%. Under the REIT Law, the minimum public float for a REIT is 33.33%.
MB BOTTOM-LINE: The block sale strikes again. For those unfamiliar, a block sale is when a company like RLC hires an agent/bookrunner (in this case, BPI Capital) to put together a single transaction to sell a bunch of shares that it owns at a single per-share price. There could be one buyer or many, but the key is that everything is processed at the same time and at the same price. Here, we don’t know exactly who bought, but RLC did say that the “transaction was anchored by high-quality long-only institutional investors.” Usually, that phrase just means SSS and GSIS who have been common buyers of REIT block sale shares in recent months. If you’re an RCR bull, this was a buying opportunity.
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