Capital & Regional has signed a conditional agreement to take over insurer Aviva's 52.04% stake and internet provider Karoo's 10.52% stake in the Mall Fund for a total of £213 mln (€267 mln), or a net initial yield of 6.7%.
Capital & Regional has signed a conditional agreement to take over insurer Aviva's 52.04% stake and internet provider Karoo's 10.52% stake in the Mall Fund for a total of £213 mln (€267 mln), or a net initial yield of 6.7%.
Capital & Regional will pay 34.89 pence for each unit in the fund, which is equal to the NAV per unit at 31 March 2014.
The acquisition will increase the company's ownership in the Mall Fund to 91.82% and be funded from available cash and debt funding as well as through the placement of 351 million shares at 47 pence a share.
Completion of the acquisition and the capital raising are conditional upon approval by shareholders at a general meeting planned for July 9, 2014.
The Mall Fund owns six shopping centres with a total 600 retail units in the UK, valued at a combined £832.4 mln.
'We believe the acquisition and capital raising represent a transformational milestone in Capital & Regional's plans to deliver long-term growth and, in due course, achieve its objective of becoming the leading dominant community shopping centre REIT in the UK,' commented John Clare, chairman of Capital & Regional.
The group plans to convert to a REIT at the earliest opportunity with a target date of 31 December 2014, the company added.
