Unitholders in the Australian-listed Astro Japan Property Group have voted overwhelmingly at an extraordinary general meeting to sell the company to Blackstone for AUD430m (€289m).
The offer of JPY37.9bn values the real estate investment trust’s (REIT) portfolio of Japanese assets at AUD1.1bn.
Blackstone will pay between AUD7.11 and AUD7.38 per security for Astro Japan‘s assets, plus an additional two payments, following the asset sales and winding up of Astro Japan.
The US private equity firm is paying a premium of 13% to the REIT’s average trading price in the month of August.
Astro Japan owns 27 Japanese retail, office and residential properties, located mostly in Tokyo, with some in regional cities such as Osaka and Fukuoka.
The Blackstone offer was made in August, five months after Astro’s board rejected a bid from another US group, Lone Star.
Astro began life as Babcock & Brown Japan Trust, amassing a number of shopping centres which now make up more than half of its portfolio. A third of the portfolio is in office with a small amount in residential.
The trust is managed by Spring Investment, controlled by Eric Lucas, who was global head of real estate at the now-defunct Babcock & Brown. Lucas was instrumental in founding and floating the vehicle in 2005.
Blackstone will delist the trust and take it private early next year.
Astro is the last of three REITs owning assets in Japan to be listed on the ASX in the 2000s. The other two, Challenger Kenedix Japan Trust and Galileo Japan Trust, were delisted iIn 2009 and 2016 respectively.
