This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
INVESTA Office Fund shareholders are set to vote on US giant Blackstone’s $3.3 billion takeover proposal on Monday.
The parties agreed to a scheme consideration at Blackstone’s offer of $5.52 per unit, its second sweetened bid after finding itself with unexpected competition from Canada’s Oxford Properties Group, part of the C$100 billion OMERS pension fund.
Blackstone’s most recent increase came with several conditions, including that the meeting take place “as soon as possible and in any event no later than 14 September 2018”.
Investa said its board had “worked with Blackstone to address those conditions, and the parties have agreed that the earliest practicable date on which the scheme meeting may be resumed to allow time for lodgement of updated proxies, would be Monday, 17 September 2018”.
Investa and Blackstone also agreed that if the proposal is accepted after Monday, IOF unitholders would receive cash consideration of $5.3485 per unit, Blackstone’s previous effective offer. The break fee has also been increased from $20 million to $33 million.
Blackstone’s sweetened offer of $5.45 per unit, before IOF’s second half distribution, arrived after Investa Commercial Property Fund revealed it planned to vote against the initial proposal with its 19.99% stake, almost certainly quashing the takeover attempt given it required 75% approval from shareholders.
ICPF would then on-sell around half of those shares to Oxford.
While its second bid satisfied ICPF, Blackstone then had to trump Oxford’s bid of $5.50 per unit that landed two days before a planned shareholder meeting to vote on the proposal.
ICPF had sought to avoid legal concerns over its eligibility to vote, and offloaded a 50% stake in IOF’s property manager to the property arm of Macquarie Capital as a result.
Australian Property Journal
