Blackstone to buy Max Property Group for €567m

US private equity giant Blackstone has agreed to take over AIM-listed Max Property Group in a deal which values the UK real estate company at £448 mln (€567 mln), reflecting a 22% premium to the group's net asset value per end-March 2014.

Under the deal, Blackstone will pay £414.2 mln in cash to acquire MPG Opco, which owns the entire property business of the group. The price excludes £33 mln in cash being returned by the company to shareholders on Wednesday.

Blackstone is making the purchase on behalf of its Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe IV fund.

The sale is conditional on approval by more than 50% of the votes cast at the Extraordinary General Meeting planned for August 11. The company said shareholders representing 46% of shares have already undertaken to vote in favour. This includes US hedge fund Och-Ziff, which owns a 16% stake, and Prestbury, founder Nick Leslau’s main company which owns 11%.

The net cash return to shareholders is expected to be 184.2 pence a share, including 15 pence a share to be paid on Wednesday, representing a premium of nearly 19% to Monday’s closing price.

'Having received an approach from Blackstone offering a cash price at an attractive level, the board has concluded that the interests of all shareholders are best served with an earlier disposal in a single and fast transaction,' Max Property Group said in a statement.

AIM-listed Max Property Group launched in 2009 in the largest European IPO of that year, raising £211 mln from investors. At the time of listing, the board anticipated that delivery of the group’s strategy would take some seven and a half years.

'Max has performed extremely strongly since its listing in 2009, achieving its key objectives of acquiring a substantial portfolio of assets at a time of market distress and managing them intensively to generate market leading returns,' commented Aubrey Adams, Chairman of Max Property Group.

He added: 'As Max was established with a limited life strategy, the board has always been mindful of its duty to identify the best possible route to crystallise the company’s success.'

Ken Caplan, head of European Real Estate at Blackstone, commented: 'These properties are great additions to our London office portfolio as well as our growing UK industrial and logistics platform.'