UK Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) SEGRO has agreed to acquire a further 74.9 per cent interest in Sofibus Patrimoine (Sofibus), an urban warehousing company in France for €313.71 per share.
SEGRO acquired a 19.5 per cent interest in Sofibus in 2018 for €20.5 million (representing €138 per share). SEGRO has now unconditionally agreed to acquire a further 74.9 per cent of Sofibus from the Hottinguer Concert Party and several minority shareholders for €313.71 per share, a total of €178.6 million, which values 100 per cent of the equity of Sofibus at €238.5 million.
Closing of the transaction is expected by 21 December 2020, at which point SEGRO will own 94.4 per cent of Sofibus.
SEGRO said it will file a simplified mandatory tender offer at a price of €313.71 per share for the Sofibus Patrimoine shares not owned by SEGRO and intends to implement a squeeze-out procedure in order to delist the Company from Euronext Paris.
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As a result, SEGRO will secure majority ownership and control of Sofibus’s property portfolio, allowing SEGRO to increase its presence in the Paris urban warehouse market significantly.
“This is a rare opportunity to significantly increase our exposure to urban warehousing in Paris which has long been a core market for SEGRO. We have got to know Sofibus well as a shareholder and member of the Board of Directors over the past two years and look forward to the next stage of growth for the Parc d’Activités des Petits Carreaux,” said David Sleath, Chief Executive of SEGRO.
“Our local team has intimate knowledge of the Paris warehouse market and will deploy its expertise to add value by actively managing Sofibus’s existing assets and by developing new, state of the art warehousing on the adjacent plots of land to satisfy growing occupier demand,” he added.
The Sofibus property portfolio comprises:
- Parc d’Activités des Petits Carreaux, a 149,900 sq m urban warehouse estate with easy access to central Paris. PAPC contains 35 units and is 96 per cent occupied. The local SEGRO team will take over management of the estate and will look to modernise it and increase rents over time.
- 17 hectares of development land suitable for further urban warehouse projects. The 17 hectares of development land is split between two sites, with potential to add approximately 50,000 sq m of new urban warehouse space in due course.
- A 2,700 sq m office building located in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The building is fully let to eight tenants. As a warehouse owner and developer, SEGRO intends to dispose of this asset at the appropriate time.
