Warburg Pincus has emerged as a third party pursuing Australia’s largest storage company, National Storage REIT (NSR), with an A$1.7bn (€1.05bn) bid.
Following media reports, NSR confirmed it had received an unsolicited confidential non-binding indicative proposal from the US private equity firm.
NSR said Warburg Pincus intended to buy out 100% of the issued stapled securities of NSR for a cash price of $2.20 per stapled security.
The Australian company owns and manages a portfolio of 167 storage facilities, worth A$1.95bn
The announcement comes a day after NSR said it had received a “superior” bid from the US-listed Public Storage, with a A$1.9bn offer for the company, which owns storage facilities across Australasia.
NSR had also previously announced an offer from Hong Kong’s Gaw Capital Partners, but the offer price was not disclosed.
NSR said the Warburg Pincus offer had preceded the proposal from Public Storage. It also disclosed that the Gaw Capital indicative offer was for A$2.20 per NSR security, the same as the A$1.7bn offered by Warburg Pincus.
NSR said: “Warburg Pincus is currently conducting its non-exclusive due diligence, including a review of confidential information provided by NSR, and is in discussions with NSR management and its advisors in relation to the proposal.”
NSR added: “Warburg Pincus and National Storage entered into a confidentiality agreement to facilitate Warburg Pincus being provided with access to material non-public information concerning NSR.”
