This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 19, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: 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 land parcels come together with a three-storey hyper mall, as well as 1,242 car park bays and 1,236 motorcycle bays.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, 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 the Securities Commission Malaysia’s guidelines on real estate investment trusts.

The group’s gearing stood at 38.27%, based on its first half of 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 yesterday, with a market capitalisation of RM497.6 million.