Life Science REIT successfully raised gross proceeds of £350m from its initial public offering (IPO).
The company said it received applications exceeding the £350m maximum size of the issue, so a scaling-back exercise has been undertaken.
A total of 350m ordinary shares will be admitted to trading on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange on 19 November, with the ticker LABS.
The company will invest in life science property, such a laboratories, in the so-called golden triangle of London-Oxford-Cambridge. Details of the investment criteria can be found here.
Claire Boyle, chair of Life Science REIT, said: “We are delighted to see such strong support from a broad range of institutional and retail investors for the issue, the proceeds of which will enable the company to begin investing in an extensive pipeline of projects. We welcome all of our new shareholders and look forward to updating them on the deployment of the IPO proceeds.”
Simon Farnsworth, managing director of Ironstone Asset Management, the company’s investment adviser, said: “This is the largest London listed UK REIT IPO since 2016 with its success underlining the significant opportunity we have identified in the UK life science property sector, which is not currently represented by a specialist business on the public markets. We will now act swiftly to advance the pipeline of income-producing opportunities and exciting development opportunities currently under exclusivity or in advanced negotiations. We look forward to updating the market in due course.”
LABS : Life Sciences REIT raises £350m at IPO