This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
ESR’s $723.4 million takeover of ASX-listed Propertylink is all but certain after the groups entered into a binding agreement.
Pan-Asian logistics giant ESR, backed by Warburg-Pincus, had been in due diligence with Propertylink for several weeks after submitting a beefed-up cash takeover bid that prompted Propertylink to abandon its concurrent pursuit of Centuria Industrial REIT (CIP).
The previous bid from ESR came in at $693 million, or $1.15 per share, revised upwards to $1.20 per share. That represented a 14.3% premium to Propertylink’s closing price of $1.05 on September 20, the day before it launched its initial offer, and a 15.2% premium to the six-month VWAP to that date. The latest offer has been cleared by the Foreign Investment Review Board.
“ESR’s offer provides Propertylink securityholders an opportunity to realise certain value for their Propertylink securities, at an attractive premium to Propertylink’s trading price prior to the receipt of ESR’s initial proposal and NTA,” Propertylink chairman, Peter Lancken said yesterday.
It will mark further entrenchment in Australia’s growing industrial and logistics sector for ESR. Earlier this year, it bought out developer Commercial and Industrial Property from Charter Hall and its partners, to use as a seed asset for its foray into the Australian market.
ESR will use its current 19.89% stake in Propertylink to vote against Centuria’s proposal to spill the Propertylink board at a shareholder meeting on Thursday. It had snapped up an initial 18.06% stake in Propertylink one year ago, which itself had just rebuffed a $573 million takeover offer from Centuria.
CIP had rejected Propertylink’s $755 million takeover bid last month, noting ESR’s pursuit of its suitor.
In recent weeks, Propertylink saw a 3.9% valuation increase across its industrial portfolio, after revaluations of 29 of its 31 properties, resulting in a net increase of $30.9 million and a weighted average capitalisation rate firming of 17 basis points to 6.49%.
Australian Property Journal
