Brookfield Steps In With £1.1B Deal To Scupper Segro Offer For Tritax
Canadian private equity giant Brookfield has agreed to acquire Tritax EuroBox for £1.1B, exceeding a previous offer from European REIT Segro.
The Brookfield acquisition values Tritax EuroBox's ordinary share capital at approximately £557M, based on Tritax EuroBox's net debt as of 31 March, implying an enterprise value of approximately £1.1B.
In a statement to the market on Thursday morning, the boards of the two companies confirmed that they reached an agreement, which includes Tritax’s debt and valued Tritax at 69p per share, a 6% premium to the implied value of Segro’s September offer and a 28% premium to the price before Segro’s offer.
Tritax described the terms of the deal as “fair and reasonable” and added that the board had unanimously backed the offer, withdrawing their previous recommendation for Segro’s offer. The acquisition is expected to complete later this year.
Tritax EuroBox specialises in managing and investing in European logistics-oriented real estate, but since its initial public offering nearly 11 years ago, Tritax has persistently traded at a discount to net asset value. Brookfield had been in talks with the FTSE 250 company during the summer but did not submit a formal offer at the time.
Brookfield said in the financial release that it believed that bringing Tritax under private ownership would better position the company for further investment into existing assets, coupled with the benefits that accrue from being part of a “scaled, better capitalised and actively growing real estate platform.”
“The cash offer from Brookfield represents a premium to the current value of the Segro offer and ensures that Tritax EuroBox shareholders will benefit from a significant uplift over the undisturbed value of their investment with flexibility to reinvest as they see fit,” Tritax Chair Robert Orr said in a statement.
