Abacus Property Group has completed a $187 million capital raising and will use the funds raised to reduce its debt.
Abacus placed 748 million stapled securities with institutional and retail investors at $0.25 each.
The issue price was a discount to the share price of $0.32 last Friday and the raising will dilute the investments of existing unitholders.
In January, the group had already placed $24.4 million with Kirsh Group.
"With $211 million of new equity, we now have the balance sheet strength to withstand the challenges of the current environment and are well placed to pursue new opportunities as conditions improve," Abacus managing director Frank Wolf said on Friday.
The debt reduction will push back its gearing level to 22.6 per cent from 36.6 per cent.
This places Abacus among the lower geared Australian real estate investment trusts (A-REITs).
The average level of gearing in the A-REIT sector was 44.4 per cent in 2008, according to research from BDO Kendall.
The A-REIT sector lost 55 per cent last year as investors pulled out of the credit-intensive sector.
Last week, Standard and Poor's downgraded the credit rating of several trusts which were struggling to reduce their debt.
