Publication Date : 03-05-2013
A Taiwanese cable TV operator backed by Australia's Macquarie Group is planning a business trust public listing in Singapore late this month to raise as much as S$1.4 billion (US$1.13 billion).
According to a preliminary prospectus filed yesterday, Asian Pay Television Trust will be offering up to 942.6 million units at a maximum of S$1 each.
Cornerstone investors, including Eastspring Investments, renowned investor George Soros' Quantum Partners, Asian Century Quest Capital, Lion Global Investors and Neuberger Berman, have already agreed to purchase about 451 million units.
Asian Pay Television is a trust formed to acquire its initial asset, the TBC Group, Taiwan's third-largest cable TV operator.
TBC Group operates exclusively in Taiwan, said the document.
It offers basic cable TV, premium digital cable TV and broadband services to households and businesses in five closely clustered and densely populated franchise areas in northern and central Taiwan.
The sponsor of the trust is Macquarie Capital Group. It is the holding entity for Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, a global infrastructure asset management group, with about A$97 billion (US$99 billion) of assets under management as at last December 31. The trustee manager is Macquarie APTT Management, a wholly owned unit of the sponsor.
The trustee manager plans to use listing proceeds to repay debt and for general corporate and working capital purposes.
The trust intends to distribute 100 per cent of its distributable free cash flows, with payouts made every six months with the amount to be calculated as at June 30 and December 31 each year for the six months ending on those dates.
The trust's first distribution period will be from its listing date to June 30.
Risk factors listed in the document include operating in the highly competitive pay-TV and broadband market in Taiwan, being in a highly regulated industry and potential subscriber fluctuations.
Macquarie and JP Morgan are the joint issue managers for the listing, while Macquarie, JP Morgan, CIMB and DBS are the joint bookrunners and underwriters.
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