LISTINGS: The Australian Unity Office Fund will list on the Australian bourse today after raising $152 million in an over-subscribed initial public offering, which, as the first A-REIT to list in 2016, is likely to herald a wave of floats in the property sector. 
The fund, controlled by diversified group Australian Unity, chaired by Peter Promnitz, will trade on the ASX from midday under the code AOF, with an initial market capitalisation of $280.8m.
Established in 2005, the fund owns eight office properties in NSW, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Queensland valued at $391m at   April 30. The group said investors voted "overwhelmingly for in favour of" the listing.
"We have been very happy with the high level of interest from both institutional and retail investors to date. The IPO was well oversubscribed," said David Bryant, Australian Unity Investments chief executive.
"The listing will provide access to additional equity for the sustainable growth of the Fund and liquidity to those investors seeking to withdraw." The IPO, disclosed by The Australian last year, raised $155.09m equity from unitholders.
During the process, Australian Unity also received $53.29m of withdrawal requests from unitholders who will be paid in full, said Mr Bryant. The offer was underwritten by UBS, Credit Suisse and NAB.
Other property IPOs in the pipeline include Charter Hall's new trust, which will be promoted as a Long WALE listed vehicle valued at $1.4 billion.
Property funds manager Propertylink, which is chasing about $500m in an IPO, had a favourable response in non-deal meetings held by Credit Suisse, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs this month.Viva Energy REIT, owning a $2bn portfolio of petrol stations also had a good reception from potential investors on a recent non-deal roadshow.