It's been a pretty horrible day for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) so far this Thursday. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 is down by a nasty 0.67%, pulling the index back under 7,000 points. But it's been even worse for the National Storage REIT (ASX: NSR) share price.
National Storage REIT units have returned from their trading halt today. And investors did not treat this real estate investment trust (REIT)'s absence kindly. This ASX 200 property share last traded at $2.51 a share as of Tuesday's close. But today, National Storage units opened at just $2.38 per unit this morning, down more than 5%.
At the time of writing, the REIT has recovered somewhat, but is still nursing a 4% loss at $2.41 per unit.
So what's going on here?
National Storage units return to trading
Well, as we covered yesterday, National Storage announced a trading halt on Wednesday morning to allow the company to conduct a capital raising program. This consisted of a $300 million institutional share placement, and a $25 million share purchase plan for retail investors.
At the time, the REIT told investors that it intended to use the funds for the following:
The proceeds from the Equity Raising will be used to fund NSR's committed and future acquisitions and its committed development spend, repay debt, including drawn facilities that are due to expire in 1H FY24, and strengthen the balance sheet.
Originally, the REIT indicated to the markets that its shares would resume trading tomorrow. However, this morning, the company released an announcement that told investors it had successfully completed its capital raising at a price of $2.41 per unit.
It also revealed that the company would be returning to trade today after "the placement received strong support from existing securityholders and new investors".
Here's what National Storage managing director Andrew Catsoulis had to say this morning:
We are very appreciative of the huge amount of support received for National Storage and its growth strategy from both existing and new investors. The equity raising will allow National Storage to fund strategic growth initiatives, repay debt and strengthen the balance sheet.
So it appears that investors were either not entirely happy with the capital raising, or else are just sending National Storage units down with the rest of the market today. Or perhaps a bit of both.
Either way, it's probably not the return that this ASX 200 REIT envisioned. But let's see what the rest of the week has in store for the National Storage unit price.
