Songbird Estates dismisses conflict-of-interest complaint from bidder QIA
Songbird Estates has dismissed a complaint from bidder the Qatar investment Authority (QIA) about a potential conflict of interests, The Daily Telegraph reported. The QIA pointed out that Songbird adviser Alex Midgen, head of real estate investment banking at Rothschild, also has a Songbird board seat, having been nominated by 25% shareholder Simon Glick. He also owns 111,000 Songbird shares himself, the report said.
The QIA, in concert with Canada-based Brookfield, is considering abandoning a potential GBP 2.2bn (USD 3.4bn) takeover of Songbird after a revaluation late last week increased the Canary Wharf owner’s value by close to 20%, the report said. The joint bidders had proposed a 295p-per-share offer but the revaluation gave the company a new 381p-per-share net asset value, the item noted.
Songbird said there is no conflict of interests as Midgen is not working for the bidside team, the item reported. It went on to quote an unidentified market source who described the QIA’s complaint as an “irrelevant tactic”, which indicates the Qatari sovereign wealth fund is less interested in making a fair-value offer than in “tricks”.
A Songbird spokesperson was quoted stating that the advisory appointments of Rothschild, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Cazenove were supported by all the Songbird directors who did not have any links to the firms.
Source Daily Telegraph