Australia-based Cromwell Property Group has withdrawn its offer to take over London-listed RDI REIT.
Cromwell launched the bid last month in a cash and scrip offer thought to be worth €1.85 per share for RDI REIT. The offer price represented a 43% premium to the last close before the bid became public in March.
In a statement, Cromwell said: “The RDI board considered the proposal to undervalue RDI and its prospects and, as a result, the RDI board has taken the decision not to support a further period of due diligence.
“Accordingly, Cromwell confirms that, pursuant to Rule 2.8 of the Code, it does not intend to make an offer for RDI.”
In its own statement, RDI REIT confirmed it’s decision not to support a further period of due diligence.
RDI REIT, which currently has a market capitalisation of over €500m, controls £1.6bn (€1.84bn) diversified portfolio in the UK and Germany.
Cromwell said today that it remained focused on its “Invest To Manage” strategy and would continue to leverage its ability to originate value enhancing opportunities across its businesses in Australia, Singapore and Europe.
It added that the group had identified several accretive value-add developments across the existing Australian balance sheet portfolio and is actively pursuing other opportunities across its funds platform in Australia and Europe.
Over half of Cromwell’s A$11.5bn (€7.22bn) of assets under management as at 31 December, 2018 is concentrated in Europe.
Cromwell which has recently been granted an Alternative Investment Funds Management licence from Luxembourg intends to actively grow its European funds management platform.
In an interview with IPE Real Assets, Rob Percy, Cromwell’s chief investment officer, spoke of investment opportunities coming from price dislocations occurring in the public and private markets in the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
He spoke of strong interest in European real estate from Korea and Singapore, where the group manages a listed vehicle, Cromwell European REIT.
In addition to managing mandates, Percy flagged the likelihood of launching an open-ended wholesale fund to hold European assets, which he said would appeal to Asian investors who did not have the big capital required for mandates but were looking for diversification outside their own region.
