US private equity group Starwood Capital Group has launched a €810 mln bid for Victoria Park, a Swedish listed residential landlord with a market capitalisation of SEK 7.7 bn (€750 mln), and an enterprise value of SEK 15.4 bn.
Starwood's Starlight Residential unit is offering SEK 34.40 in cash per Class A and Class B share in Victoria Park, representing an 8.2% and 8.5% premium respectively versus the company's closing price on the day prior to the offer.
Pangea Property Partners is acting as financial and M&A advisor to Starwood and Carnegie Investment Bank is acting as financial and capital markets advisor to Starwood in connection with the offer. Linklaters is acting as legal advisor.
The cash offer to shareholders in Victoria Park values the Swedish company at about SEK 8.68 bn, Starwood said in a statement to the stock exchange in Stockholm.
Irrevocable undertakings to accept the offer have come from six major Victoria Park shareholders, corresponding to about 22% of shares and 31.5% of the votes in the Swedish company, Starwood said.
Entry into rented-residential sector
Through the transaction, Victoria Park would have the necessary backing for 'the next phase of its capital-intensive investment programme to upgrade its properties', Starwood's vice president Caleb Mercer said in the statement.
'Starwood Capital Group is a global real estate investment firm which in recent years has invested across office, hotel, retail, for-sale residential and logistics in Scandinavia. Victoria Park represents an opportunity for us to enter the rented-residential sector in Sweden,' he added.
Victoria Park owns 1 million m2 of space comprising 13,500 flats.
A detailed offer document is due to be made public around the end of April, with the acceptance period set to start around early May and end on or around 1 June.
Victoria Park has instructed Svenska Handelsbanken to provide a fairness opinion regarding the offer as soon as the offer document is published.
