Peet seeks expansion into more states
The residential developer, land syndicator and funds manager, Peet Limited has made a $76 million takeover bid for CIC Australia, which would open it to markets in South Australia, Northern Territory and the ACT.
CIC is a listed residential property developer with seven active projects across the ACT, NSW, SA and NT with over 500 exchanged contracts worth $148 million.
Peet Limited is a leading national property group that has been operating for more than 115 years concentrating on its home base in Western Australia, along with Victoria and Queensland and a small presence in New South Wales.
Its the third largest of any ASX listed property group with some 70 owned, syndicated and joint venture residential estates across the country.
Peet agreed to acquire a 19.9% stake in CIC, either through the bid, or otherwise through direct acquisition, from CIC’s major shareholder, Guinness Peat Group.
Peet announced today that it had successfully completed the $116 million institutional component of the equity raising to facilitate the acquisition of CIC Australia Limited.
The Peet managing director Brendan Gore commented that the institutional placements were heavily oversubscribed, requiring significant scaling back.
The institutional placements were fully underwritten by Merrill Lynch.
The Peet Chairman, Mr Tony Lennon, is strongly supportive of the proposed transaction and equity raising and from the beginning of discussions with CIC has committed to subscribe for approximately 7.0 million shares which requires shareholder approval, given Mr Lennon’s position as chairman of Peet ("Chairman Placement").
In addition to the institutional placements and the chairman placement, if the takeover offer is successful, Peet intends to offer all eligible retail shareholders, the opportunity to subscribe for up to $15,000 of additional Peet shares under a Share Purchase Plan ("SPP"), with the total raising under the SPP capped at $8 million.
Shares under the SPP will be offered at the same price as the institutional placements and chairman placement ($1.15 per share).
Peet reserves the right (in its absolute discretion) to scale back the maximum participation amount per shareholder if total demand exceeds $8 million. The SPP will not be undertaken if the takeover offer is unsuccessful.
