Charter Hall Office REIT shareholders vote in favour of privatisation
Shareholders of Charter Hall Office REIT have today voted in favour of the privatisation bid by a consortium of institutional investors including Singapore government affiliate Reco Ambrosia Pte Ltd, The Public Sector Pension Investment Board of Canada, and a member of the Charter Hall Group.
The vote was 96% in favour of the takeover.
Goldman Sachs REIT analyst Peter Zuk says the deal is not yet over the line with a number of conditions still to be met.
“[These include] completion of US asset sales by the end of March 2012. Second Judicial Advice has now been delayed and will not be obtained until after the last US asset sale has completed.
“The proposal will not proceed unless all conditions precedent are satisfied by 17 May 2012 – or such later date as the parties may agree,” he says.
Under the agreement shareholders will receive $2.49 per share comprising a cash consideration of $1.84 per share and implementation distributions of $0.65 per share.
Shareholders will also receive 96c per share for US sales distributions, 49c of which has already been paid.
Should everything proceed as per the agreement, the trust will delist from the ASX in mid-April.
In its December 31 interim results released in February, Charter Hall Office REIT had an Australian office portfolio valued at $1.85 billion with an occupancy rate of 97%.
The trust reported a statutory loss of $59.9 million, “significantly impacted by offshore asset sales and various non-cash items”.
