Austrian listed property company CA Immo and its Russian partner, 01 Group, are pressing ahead with their campaign to take a big stake in CEE investor-developer Immofinanz for €422 mln.
Austrian listed property company CA Immo and its Russian partner, 01 Group, are pressing ahead with their campaign to take a big stake in CEE investor-developer Immofinanz for €422 mln.
CA Immo and O1 Group, which already holds 3.3% of Immofinanz's shares, are offering €2.80 per share for an additional 13.5% stake.
Vienna and Warsaw-listed Immofinanz earlier rejected the offer as 'ridiculous' and 'too low', and unveiled its own €530 mln counter-bid for a 29% stake in CA Immo. CA Immo and O1, in turn, dismissed the Immofinanz offer as an 'emotional response' to their own offer, and questioned whether such a move was justified at a time when Immofinanz's five large shopping centres in Russia were under-performing due to the economic downturn in the country.
Despite the sharp exchanges between Immofinanz and CA Immo-O1, market watchers contacted by PropertyEU have suggested a merger of CA Immo and Immofinanz to create the largest listed real estate investment company of its kind in the CEE region might be the most realistic option.
However, the offer document published by CA Immo and O1 Group on Wednesday stated the pair were currently not planning a takeover of Immofinanz or intervention in Immofinanz's day-to-day operations.
When contacted on Tuesday to comment on the suggestion a merger could be on the cards, a spokeswoman for CA Immo said that ‘nothing can be excluded in the long term, although synergies can also be realised without a merger’. O1 Group did not comment.
The offer document states the two companies will not increase the offer price unless a competitive bid emerges.
Immofinanz wrote on its blog on Monday that it was ‘available for discussions with the management of CA Immo and the O1 Group’. ‘We have always emphasised that it makes strategic sense when two companies that are active in the same regions and asset classes move closer together over the long-term. These overlaps make it a generally reasonable step,’ said Immofinanz executive board member Oliver Schumy in the blog.
Both Austrian companies fish largely in the same real estate pond. Immofinanz has €6.8 bn of retail, office and residential real estate under management in Austria, Germany, Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. CA Immo specialises in office properties in Central European capitals and has €3.6 bn in assets in Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe.