Fund manager Aliro has made a A$403m (€269m) offer for Australian Unity Office Fund (AOF), which owns a A$635m portfolio of suburban office complexes.
AOF said the offer from the Sydney-based manager was on behalf of the Aliro Group Office Value Fund (AGOVF).
Aliro proposed to acquire all the issued units in ASX-listed AOF for A$2.45 cash per AOF unit, by way of a trust scheme.
AOF said the fund’s responsible entity, Australian Unity Investment Real Estate Limited (AUIREL), would establish an independent board committee to consider the proposal.
It added that AOF unitholders did not currently need to take any action in relation to the bid.
However, AUIREL said Aliro had the support of the listed fund’s single largest unitholder, Hume Partners. Hume Partners, which holds 19.97% of AOF’s units, had provided Aliro with “a voting intention statement” to vote in favour of the offer, in the absence of a superior proposal.
The offer is subject to due diligence by Aliro as well as a recommendation from the fund’s responsible entity.
AOF unitholders had previously rejected repeated takeover attempts by Starwood Capital which made a final offer of A$485m in January 2020.
Three years ago, Charter Hall partnered with Abacus, another Australian property fund manager, to buy out the fund, managed by Australian Unity, for A$495m. That offer, too, was jettisoned by unitholders.
Aliro is jointly founded by Daniel Wise and David Southon. Southon was the co-founder of Charter Hall with David Harrison, but left the firm in 2017 to set up Aliro.
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