French insurer raises bid for Tour Eiffel

French mutual insurance group SMABTP has raised its takeover bid for French REIT Société de la Tour Eiffel by 10% to €53 per share.

The cash offer values the Paris office landlord at around €330 mln and compares to a price of €48 per share offered by SMABTP back in late January. At the time, STE advised its shareholders to accept the offer at the time although it added that the bid did not 'sufficiently reflect the company's intrinsic value'.

In a statement to the French stock market regulator, SMABTP said it will withdraw the offer if it does not obtain at least 40% of Tour Eiffel's share capital. The bid closes on May 23.

SMABTP is the leading insurance group in France for the construction and public works sector.

STE has been at the centre of a number of bids in the recent past. In October last year Patron Capital said it was in exclusive talks to swap an asset for an equity stake in the company. The private equity investor broke off talks later on when STE shareholder and businessman Chuc Hoang sought to take control of the company.

The investor currently owns a 29% stake in the Paris-listed REIT through a number of companies including MI 29, Eurobail and Foncière Wilson. An attempt by Chuc Hoang to block SMABTP's bid was dismissed earlier this week by the Paris court of appeal.