Primonial’s shareholders are understood to have initiated legal action against listed property firm Altarea over the breakdown of a corporate deal between the two companies.
PropertyEU understands that Primonial’s investors Bridgepoint, Latour Capital, and Sogecap have taken the case to the Tribunal de Commerce de Paris and are suing Altarea for damages after the company announced a month ago that it was abandoning plans to take over Primonial in a €1.9 bn deal.
Primonial’s management, which owns a minority stake in the firm, is believed to be supporting the move.
In a statement in early March, Primonial said it was ‘extremely surprised by the unilateral decision of the Altarea group’ to pull out of the takeover. ‘The press conference held at the end of last week to announce Altarea's 2021 results confirmed that the acquisition of the Primonial group was due to take place in the coming days,’ the company said at the time.
Altarea and Primonial first announced last summer that they were to be merged in a deal creating a new combine with roughly €30 bn in real estate assets under management.
Under the operation, Altarea would have acquired 60% of the capital of Primonial in the first quarter of 2022 and the remainder in the first quarter of 2024.
Altarea was to buy the Primonial platform from Primonial’s shareholders, Bridgepoint, Latour Capital, and Sogecap.
Commenting on the decision to abandon the deal, Altarea indicated in early March that some of the conditions agreed upon at the time of signing terms in June 2021 were not met in terms of ‘substance, form, and timing’.
However, Altarea's statement immediately drew a stinging rebuke from Primonial.
'While the sale of the Primonial group, in the set-up negotiated and announced last July, was scheduled for today, the Altarea group has announced to us on February 28th, unilaterally, that it will not proceed with the acquisition.'
It said: 'This transaction, particularly complex given the ambition to simplify the current shareholding structure of the Primonial group at closing, required the completion of a very large number of transactions (mergers, capital increase, capital reduction, etc.) within the very tight deadlines that were jointly set last July at the time of the signing.'
'It is therefore inconceivable to question its completion only two days before closing for this reason alone, when all the conditions precedent were met. We are extremely surprised by this unilateral decision of the Altarea group.'
