Ireland’s first domestic real estate investment trust Green REIT has agreed to sell itself to Henderson Park Real Estate Management for €1.34bn.
Green REIT, which listed in 2013, put itself up for sale in April this year, following a strategic review, in a bid to “maximise value for its shareholders”.
At the time, the company said as a consequence of the review, it had taken a decision to initiate a process for the sale of the company or its €1.48bn real estate portfolio of prime office (88%) and logistics assets. 95% of the assets are situated in Dublin.
This was followed by an announcement last month that the company was in talks to sell itself to Henderson Park.
Green REIT said today that it has now agreed to be bought by Henderson Park.
Henderson Park said it is offering Green REIT shareholders €1.9135 in cash for each share they hold, a deal which values the company at €1.34bn.
The amount being offered represents a 24.7% premium to Green REIT’s closing share price of €1.534 on 12 April 2019, the last business day prior to the announcement of the commencement of a sales process.
Nick Weber, founding partner and CEO of Henderson Park, said: “The acquisition of Green REIT offers a rare opportunity to invest in a large institutional-quality office portfolio and a strategic logistics park through a single transaction.
“The portfolio offers exposure to high-quality properties located predominantly in Dublin, leased to blue-chip tenants, and two strategic development sites. We believe in the short-term and long-term prospects of the Irish market with its strong macroeconomic backdrop and underlying real estate fundamentals.”
Gary Kennedy, chair of Green REIT, said: “Green REIT has been trading at a persistent structural discount to its underlying net asset value since early 2016.
”This persistent discount has been inconsistent with the value of the company’s assets, management, business plan and performance as well as the Irish commercial property sector.”
