The Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust (CEREIT) successfully listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) on 30 November 2017. CEREIT is the first euro-denominated real estate investment trust (REIT) and the first REIT with a diversified pan-European portfolio that is listed on the Singapore Exchange. This transaction constitutes the largest REIT IPO in Asia since 2013 by market capitalisation. In order to create this portfolio, the IPO was preceded by several complex real estate transactions in Europe, which were concluded simultaneously and jointly with the IPO.
Clifford Chance advised CEREIT sponsor Cromwell Property Group, a global real estate investment manager based in Brisbane (Australia), with a multinational team led from Germany amongst others on the cross-border real estate transactions involving a combination of share and asset deals.
CEREIT invests in a diversified portfolio of office, light industrial/logistics and retail properties across five European countries. CEREIT's IPO portfolio comprises 74 properties in Denmark, Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands with a total value of EUR 1.354 billion.
The joint issue managers for the IPO were Goldman Sachs (Singapore) Pte. and UBS AG, Singapore Branch. The joint bookrunners were DBS Bank Ltd., Goldman Sachs (Singapore) Pte., UBS AG, Singapore Branch, Daiwa Capital Markets Singepore Limited and CLSA Singapore Pte Ltd. A total of around 1.574 billion units were issued at EUR 0.55 each. Approximately 428.5 million of these shares are traded. Cromwell will hold 563.6 million units and the cornerstone investors 581.8 million units (without greenshoe option).
The international Clifford Chance team with members of its Real Estate, Corporate/M&A and Finance practices was led out of Germany and comprised partner Cornelia Thaler (Real Estate, Frankfurt) as well as partners Joachim Hasselbach (Corporate, Frankfurt), Jaap Koster (Corporate, Amsterdam), Quirine Eenhorst (Investment Funds, Amsterdam), Claudio Cerabolini (Real Estate), Giuseppe de Palma (Finance) and Lucio Bonavitacola (Regulatory, all Milan), François Bonteil and Alexandre Couturier (both Real Estate, Paris), Joëlle Hauser (Investment Funds), Christian Kremer and Katia Gauzès (both Corporate, all Luxembourg), Daniel Kopania (Real Estate, Warsaw) as well as Owen Lysak (Finance), Alis Pay (Real Estate) and Adrian Levy (Corporate/M&A, all London).
