Mapeley, a property investment and outsourcing specialist in the UK, is set to become the first real estate company to de-list from the London Stock Exchange since the onset of the downturn.
Mapeley, a property investment and outsourcing specialist in the UK, is set to become the first real estate company to de-list from the London Stock Exchange since the onset of the downturn.
Shareholders of the Guernsey-registered company are to meet to vote on the de-listing proposal on 18 March. Mapeley's board of directors has unanimously recommended acceptance of de-listing.
The move has been prompted by New York-based hedge fund, Fortress Investment Group, which helped set up Mapeley in 1999 and became its main shareholder after the company went public in 2005. Fortress backed a failed takeover bid for Mapeley over a year ago, but it got a second chance to take the outsourcing specialist private when Mapeley was forced to undertake a £45 mln (now EUR 51 mln) convertible bond issue just before Christmas to help pay off a loan of £60m (almost EUR 68 mln) from Deutsche Bank by April this year.
Fortress supported the bond issue and it intends to convert the bondsto ordinary shares, giving it the 75% of voting rights needed to pass the de-listing resolution.
Mapeley describes itself as being among the largest commercial landlords in the UK with a portfolio of 1,670 properties, worth more than £2 bn (EUR 2.2 bn). The portfolio covers 2.4 million m2.
