Starwood Capital has made a £673.5m (€799.3m) offer for UK real estate investment trust (REIT) Balanced Commercial Property Trust (BCPT).
Starwood, through its funds, has agreed to offer the FTSE 250 REIT’s shareholders 96.00p in cash for each share held in a take-private deal that requires 75% of shareholder votes.
As of 3 September, the last business day before this announcement, BCPT’s market capitalisation was about £598.4m.
BCPT’s diversified portfolio, which consists of 28 properties valued at £882.7m, is invested solely in the UK.
In April, BCPT initiated a review to explore options for increasing shareholder value. This included selling the company or its assets.
After receiving interest from several companies, BCPT said it selected Starlight Bidco – a newly formed company owned by Starwood funds — to acquire the company, adding that the BCPT board unanimously recommends the proposed deal.
Paul Marcuse, chairman of BCPT, said: “The BCPT board has carefully considered each of the company’s strategic options, benchmarked against the likely returns that could be achieved in a managed wind-down.
“Following careful consideration, and having taken independent third-party advice, we believe that the proposed transaction with Starwood offers a successful outcome for our shareholders, offering a full cash exit at a significant premium to BCPT’s undisturbed share price.
“We, the BCPT board, therefore intend to recommend unanimously that BCPT shareholders support the acquisition at the court meeting and the general meeting, details of which will follow in due course.”
Matthew Parrott, managing director of Starwood, said: “We are pleased to announce the acquisition of Balanced Commercial Property Trust Limited and to provide BCPT’s shareholders with a significant premium to the undisturbed share price.
“This acquisition by controlled affiliates of the Starwood Capital Group will increase our exposure to logistics and other high-conviction sectors and we look forward to supporting BCPT through our access to capital, scale, and operational expertise.”
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