Home REIT raises £350m in oversubscribed issue

Home REIT has raised £350m through a “significantly oversubscribed” equity issue. The REIT, which specialises in accommodation for homeless people, had planned to raise around £262m. A total of 321,100,917 shares were issued at 109p per share. Home REIT said: “There is an ongoing critical need for homeless accommodation in the UK due to an increasing homeless population and a lack of available and affordable, high-quality, fit-for-purpose homes to address this societal issue. Home REIT intends to be part of the solution.” It said it would deploy the £350m raised against the company’s £400m acquisition pipeline. Home REIT chair Lynne Fennah said: “We are grateful to our existing shareholders and new investors for their support, which has led to strong demand and resulted in us raising an upsized amount of £350m. “The proceeds of this capital raise will enable us to continue Home REIT’s mission of working with our tenant partners to provide critically needed accommodation for people at risk of homelessness in the UK in a sustainable way. Our focus now is to deploy the equity, growing the number of homes in the portfolio from our identified pipeline.” Alvarium Securities acted for Home REIT on the initial issue. To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews