ESR said on Wednesday that its shareholders had voted to approve all of the proposals in relation to the proposed acquisition of ARA Asset Management.
91.81% of the votes cast were in favour of the approval of the proposed acquisition. ESR shareholders also voted overwhelmingly to elect Lim Hwee Chiang (John), Dr. Chiu Kwok Hung, Justin, and Rajeev Kannan as non-executive Directors of the board upon completion of the proposed acquisition.
“I am very pleased that our shareholders overwhelmingly supported this landmark transaction, which brings two best-in-class businesses and teams together to form APAC’s #1 real asset manager powered by New Economy real estate. We are currently experiencing a once-in-a-generation change in real estate and the enlarged ESR Group is very well positioned to capture the largest secular trends including the continued rise of e-commerce, an accelerating digital transformation and the financialisation of real estate. We look forward to welcoming our new strategic shareholders, the newly elected directors, the expanded teams at ARA and LOGOS, and working together to take the enlarged ESR to its next stage of growth as we embark on a new era in APAC real estate,” said Jeffrey Perlman, Chairman of ESR.
Jeffrey Shen and Stuart Gibson, ESR Co-founders and Co-CEOs, said: “We are grateful to our shareholders for their unwavering trust and support in ESR. In joining forces with ARA (and by extension LOGOS), we will leverage the expertise, best practices and capital market relationships across the combined platform to grow the enlarged ESR to new heights. Together, we will continue to strengthen ESR’s leading position as a resilient, purpose-led organisation with deep commitment to ESG, innovation and value creation for our stakeholders.”
ESR said the ESR-ARA transaction creates the largest real asset manager in APAC and the third largest listed real estate investment manager globally with a combined AUM of US$131 billion.
”Upon completion of the transaction, ARA’s business will be combined with ESR’s platform to form the enlarged ESR Group which is powered by the leading New Economy real estate platform with over US$50 billion of AUM and which represents approximately 80% of the enlarged Group’s EBITDA.”
