Vastned Retail rejects takeover bid, receives offers for portfolios

Dutch-listed property company Vastned Retail said on Thursday it has rejected a bid for the entire company because it was too low. 'The offer provides insufficient scope for the conclusion of a definitive transaction on attractive conditions', Vastned said. The company did not give additional details regarding the bidder.

Vastned said it has also received 'concrete' offers for its property portfolios in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Turkey, and has been approached by several parties with regards to its French assets. The Dutch fund said it is studying the offers and will make an announcement regarding the bids next month. A Vastned spokesperson told PropertyEU on Thursday that there is no other party bidding for the whole company, and noted that the bidders are interested in parts of its portfolios in one or more countries.

Late last year, Vastned turned down a hostile EUR 1.15 bn bid from IEF Capital, a joint venture of Bouwfonds Asset Management and Inflation Exchange Fund (IEF) but decided to open up its books for due diligence to interested parties. In a separate statement on Thursday, IEF Capital said it is eventually pulling out of the bidding for Vastned. The company, which last year launched a EUR 70 per share offer, said it was set to launch a final bid for the company until today when Vastned's management made public it had received better offers.

Vastned Retail has a property portfolio worth some EUR 2 bn mostly in the Netherlands (35%), Spain (27%), France (22%), Belgium (14%), as well as Turkey (1%) and Portugal (1%).