Grainger, Quintain to Raise $729 Million in Capital
Grainger Plc and Quintain Estates & Development Plc plan to raise a total of 441 million pounds ($729 million) from rights offers, as the U.K. property companies seek to repay debt and finance investments and acquisitions.
These sales would bring the combined amount that U.K. real estate investment trusts and property companies have raised in capital this year to about 6.6 billion pounds. The businesses are trying to shore up finances and have money available for acquisitions after commercial property prices fell 44 percent from their peak in June 2007, according to Investment Property Databank Ltd.
“It is absolutely astonishing,” said Mike Prew, a London- based analyst at Nomura International. “There seems to be a strong appetite for real estate at this stage of the cycle.” …