Hammerson board to examine Intu deal amid investor unrest - report
15 APR 2018
Hammerson [LON:HMSO]’s board of directors is expected to convene a meeting this week to scrutinise its proposed takeover of Intu Properties [LON:INTU] amid increasing shareholder dissatisfaction, The Sunday Times reported.
Intu has a significant debt burden and owns assets considered to be of inferior quality to its larger competitor Hammerson, the report said.
Analysts believe Hammerson may attempt to renegotiate the terms of its transaction with Intu to secure a better deal in a weakened retail sector, the report said. In the event Hammerson abandons the Intu takeover altogether, it may instead appease investors with share buybacks and asset disposals, the analysts predict.
Klepierre [EPA:LI], the French shopping mall operator, last week announced it was ending attempts to acquire Hammerson after two rejected bids, latterly pitched at 635p per share, the report noted. Some Hammerson shareholders were keen for the company to engage with Klepierre and push up the bidding; an unidentified top-20 shareholder quoted in the report said they were angry and appalled at the way Hammerson had acted.
One of the company’s top-10 investors said he would find it difficult to back the proposed GBP 3.4bn (USD 3.9bn) merger with Intu in the wake of Klepierre’s offers, which represented a premium of 45% over the undisturbed Hammerson stock price. As previously reported, top-five shareholder APG has announced it finds the Intu proposal “insufficiently attractive”.
The original report appeared in The Sunday Times, Business & Money section, page 3