German retail investor Deutsche EuroShop said on Tuesday that its executive board and supervisory boards have decided to recommend shareholders to accept the €21.5 a share takeover offer launched last month by Oaktree Capital Management and the Otto family office, Cura Vermoegensverwaltung.
‘After careful analysis and consideration, the management board and the supervisory board regard the cash consideration offered by the Bidder […] to be fair, adequate and attractive,’ the company said in a statement.
The offer, which includes an additional amount of €1 per share to be paid in the form of a dividend, values the company at an equity value of approximately €1.4 bn.
Within the scope of their fairness opinions prepared for the company, Deutsche Bank and Rothschild & Co also concluded that the offer consideration is fair, from a financial point of view, to the shareholders of Deutsche EuroShop.
Shareholders of Deutsche EuroShop can accept the offer until 7 July 2022. The Offer is subject to a minimum acceptance threshold of 50.0% plus one Share, including the shares already held by Alexander Otto and other entities controlled by the property magnate, including Cura.
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022.
SDAX-listed Deutsche Euroshop currently has investments in 21 shopping centres in Germany, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The portfolio includes the Main-Taunus-Zentrum near Frankfurt, the Altmarkt-Galerie in Dresden and the Galeria Baltycka in Gdansk, among others.
Otto family bid
Cura is the family office of Germany's Otto dynasty and parent company of ECE Group, and already holds a stake in Deutsche EuroShop.
Earlier in May, Deutsche EuroShop presented encouraging annual results displaying an EBIT hike of 25% to €39.3 mln. Epra earnings reached €31.3 mln, a rise of 35.5%. At the time CFO Olaf Borkers said that the firm expected '2022 to be a transition year on the way to a new normal'.
The German competition authority BaFin and the European Commission will be petitioned for merger control clearance.
