Battle over Commonwealth Property Office Fund intensifies
The $3 billion battle for the Commonwealth Property Office Fund further intensified today after the Dexus consortium matched the rival offer from the GPT Group.
Dexus and partner the Canada Pension Plan Investment board raised the value of its original bid from $1.21 to $1.27 per Commonwealth Property Office Fund (CPA) unit - matching that of GPT.
The revised offer includes a cash payment of 77.45c and 0.4516 Dexus stapled securities.
GPT is offering $0.75325 in cash and 0.141 GPT securities for every CPA unit.
In making its revised offer, Dexus said the offer would not be subject to a minimum acceptance condition and would only have "limited customary conditions".
Commenting on the revised offer, Dexus chief executive Darren Steinberg said "the due diligence process has enabled us to confirm our view on value".
Dexus said it intends to exercise its right to take physical delivery of 350,000,000 CPA units under the forward contract with Deutsche Bank on January 3, 2014.
But Dexus suggests that based on its closing price on December 10, 2013 its offer valued at $1.27 is a 2.6% premium to the GPT offer on a comparable basis.