Centuria Rejects $755 Million Propertylink Bid

Centuria Industrial REIT has rejected real estate investment group Propertylink’s $755 million takeover bid, in a unanimous decision made by its independent board committee.

ASX-listed Centuria said the board rejected the proposal due to “the nature of the consideration” which would expose Centuria unitholders to “considerable uncertainty and reliance on the future value of Propertylink Group stapled securities,” Centuria said in its ASX statement.

“The IBC believes that the current terms of the proposal offered to Centuria unitholders are not sufficiently beneficial to Centuria unitholders.”

Propertylink staked a 12.2 per cent stake in Centuria in an off-market takeover bid last month. Centuria's rebuff decision comes after pan-asian logistics platform ESR launched its own takeover play for Propertylink last month.

Centuria noted the “material uncertainty” surrounding ESR’s recent $693 million bid for Propertylink, led by Stuart Dawes, as part of its rationale to reject its proposal.

ESR’s proposal is conditional upon Propertylink, an internally managed real estate group specialising in Australian industrial and office investments with more than $1.8 billion of AUM, not proceeding with its play to acquire Centuria.

Centuria’s board also said prior to corporate activity commencing in September 2017, Propertylink’s stapled securities “did not trade above the IPO issue price and traded at an average premium to net tangible assets of approximately 0 per cent”.

“The headline premium that Propertylink Group stated in its Proposal is inflated due to potential corporate activity within Propertylink Group.”

Centuria is Australia’s largest ASX-listed income focused industrial investment fund, with properties located in metropolitan areas throughout the country, it controls a current portfolio of 37 industrial assets with a value of $1 billion.