This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
HEDGE fund Orange Capital is seeking to replace Charter Hall as the manager of the Charter Hall Office REIT with Moss Capital — chaired by Bill Moss, who founded Macquarie real estate, which was sold to CHC last year.
Orange Capital has called for an extraordinary general meeting to be held on or about 27 July 2011 at 10AM where Moss Capital Funds Management will seek to overthrow CHC as the responsible entity or CQR.
“We are delighted that Moss Capital FM has agreed to be proposed by the concerned unitholders as the new responsible entity for CQO.
“Moss Capital FM is chaired by William (Bill) Moss who spent 23 years as a senior executive of Macquarie, where he founded and led the Macquarie Real Estate Group,” Orange Capital managing director Daniel Lewis said.
“Under his leadership, the Macquarie Real Estate Group grew to manage over $23 billion of global real estate assets which included the IPO of CQO (formerly known as the Macquarie Office Trust),” he added.
In addition, Fortius Funds Management has also jumped onboard with Moss Capital.
“Given the high calibre and complementary expertise of Moss Capital FM and Fortius, the concerned unitholders are confident that should CQO unitholders support a change of responsible entity a highly qualified and experienced management team would be in place to manage the assets of CQO and pursue the following proposed strategy to continue with the US assets sale process and return 100% of the net proceeds,” he continued.
Lewis also hit back at CHC at claims that the Australian asset sales will not yield any returns.
He said they are not interested in conducting a disadvantageous sale.
“The new responsible entity may determine that other capital initiatives are the best alternative for CQO unitholders to optimise the value of their investment. Moss Capital FM and Fortius are well positioned to manage CQO’s assets in the event a sale does not occur.
“The concerned unitholders believe there is substantial buyer interest in the Australian Assets, and their advisors have already held discussions with a number of interested parties,” Lewis said.
Lewis also reiterated his view that CHC has an inherent and irreconcilable conflict of duty and self interest and is not appropriately incentivised to consider and implement the proposed strategy.
CHC had proposed to sell the CQR’s US assets into a new wholesale trust to be managed by CHC.
Australian Property Journal
