KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 18): AmFirst Real Estate Investment Trust (AmFirst REIT) has secured a RM250 million syndicated term loan facility from Public Bank Bhd and AmBank (M) Bhd to acquire six pieces of land in Seberang Perai Tengah, Penang.

The lands come together with a three-storey hypermall, as well as 1,242 car park bays and 1,236 motorcycle bays.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, Am ARA REIT Managers Sdn Bhd, the manager of AmFirst REIT, said the tenure of the borrowing is five years commencing from the date of the first drawing, with an option to extend at the absolute discretion of the two lenders.

It added that the borrowing will increase AmFirst REIT's gearing to 45.7% based on the audited total assets as at March 31, 2015, which is below the gearing limit of 50% prescribed by Securities Commission Malaysia's Guidelines on Real Estate Investment Trusts.

The group's gearing stood at 38.27% based on its first-half financial year ending March 31, 2016 (1HFY16) results.

AmFirst REIT said the borrowing is secured by an open all monies first party charge over the Mydin property, as well as an open all monies first party charge over a freehold seven-storey office tower with a two-level basement car park, known as Prima 10.

It has RM1.35 billion worth of assets under management and RM541.8 million in borrowings, according to its 1HFY16 results.

AmFirst REIT's share price has declined some 20.19% over the past one year, Bloomberg data showed.

It closed 1.38% or one sen lower at 71.5 sen, with 217,600 shares traded. It has a market capitalisation of RM497.6 million.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)