Real estate investment trust pioneer AREIT Inc. is set to acquire six additional office buildings in Cebu valued at about P11.26 billion from its sponsor, Ayala Land Inc. (ALI), under a new property-for-share swap that will boost its assets under management (AUM) to P64 billion.

This marks a 213 percent increase in its AUM since going public in August 2020, exceeding its target to double its portfolio. 

AREIT will issue 252.14 million new common shares to ALI, as validated by a third-party fairness opinion.  

"We are focused on delivering our commitment to grow our assets, diversify our geographic and tenant base and create more shareholder value with increasing dividends and price appreciation. With this new asset infusion, we foresee AREIT's dividend per share to increase, in addition to the recently concluded asset infusions last year," AREIT president and CEO Carol Mills said in a press statement on Friday.

The six buildings are eBloc Towers 1 to 4 located at the Cebu IT Park as well as ACC Tower and Tech Tower located at Ayala Center Cebu. The office buildings have a total gross leasable area (GLA) of 124,299 square meters with an overall occupancy rate of 97 percent, leased by major business process outsourcing (BPO) firms.

The new batch of asset infusion is subject to the approval of AREIT shareholders at the annual meeting this April 21. It will also be subject to clearance by pertinent regulatory bodies.   

ALI and AREIT are targeting to complete the new asset swap within the year.