UK property firms Capco, Shaftesbury in talks on reported $4 billion merger
(Reuters) – British actual property companies Capital & Counties Properties and Shaftesbury Plc mentioned they had been in superior talks on a merger that will convey such London vacationer locations as Covent Backyard and Soho underneath one umbrella.
Shaftesbury would personal 53% and Capco shareholders the rest in a deal structured as an acquisition of Shaftesbury by Capco, the businesses mentioned in a press release on Saturday.
They didn’t give a worth for the deal. Sky Information reported the merged companies would have a valuation of three.5 billion kilos ($4.3 billion).
The businesses mentioned the merger would create an actual property funding belief focussed on London’s West Finish with a portfolio of some 2.9 million sq. ft (270,000 sq. metres) “in high-profile locations together with Covent Backyard, Carnaby, Chinatown and Soho”.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, a shareholder in each companies, signalled its help for the merger, they mentioned.
The potential deal comes as London has began to choose up from pandemic lows and travellers get again on planes with easing of COVID-19 quarantine guidelines after almost two years.
When main British property offers had been at a standstill in early months of the pandemic in 2020, Capco purchased a 26.3% stake in London rival Shaftesbury from Hong Kong tycoon Samuel Tak Lee’s for 436 million kilos ($538 million).
The belief could be led by Capco boss Ian Hawksworth and chaired by Jonathan Nicholls, chair of Shaftesbury, the businesses mentioned. Brian Bickell, who has been CEO of Shaftesbury for 11 years, would retire on completion of the merger.
Evercore and Blackdown Companions are advising the Shaftesbury board, and Rothschild & Co is advising Capco, the assertion mentioned.
($1 = 0.8106 kilos)
(The story refiles to right spelling of “not” in third paragraph.)
(Reporting by Akriti Sharma and Shivam Patel in Bengaluru; Enhancing by William Mallard)
