Listed Austrian property firm Immofinanz is selling around 5 million shares in its spin-off residential real estate arm Buwog as it seeks to reposition itself as an office and retail player.
Listed Austrian property firm Immofinanz is selling around 5 million shares in its spin-off residential real estate arm Buwog as it seeks to reposition itself as an office and retail player.
The placement represents around 5% of the issued share capital of Buwog, which was listed in Frankfurt, Vienna and Warsaw in 2014. The proceeds will be used to fund payments to bondholders who have opted to exchange their portion of Immofinanz’s €375 mln bonds for cash rather than shares.
The shares are being offered by way of an accelerated bookbuilding to institutional investors, which will be launched immediately.
The remainder of the exchange offer will be funded by available liquidity from Immofinanz.
The loss-making CEE property investor plans to divest its shares in Buwog over the 2015/16 financial year as part of its strategic withdrawal from the residential and logistics markets. Immofinanz is in talks to sell its €500 mln logistics portfolio to Blackstone's European logistics division Logicor.
The company posted a net loss of €361 mln for the year to April 2015, compared to a €72 mln profit in the previous year, and is not paying a full-year dividend. Its fortunes have been hit by the downturn in Russia and increased competition in the CEE office market.
