Property giant Intu is considering a preliminary takeover offer from a consortium formed by Saudi Arabian and Canadian investors and led by John Whittaker.
The shopping centre landlord said it was mulling an indicative cash proposal of 215p per share.
The offer would value Intu at £2.9bn – a 21% premium to the company’s closing price on Thursday – but less than the £3.4bn rival Hammerson had been willing to pay before it pulled the plug on the deal in April.
The offer from Whittaker’s consortium would be “subject to an adjustment for dividends”, including the interim dividend of 4.6p per share, due to be paid to shareholders on November 20.
Intu’s share price jumped around 12.5% to 200p this morning after details of the potential offer were published.
The business, which owns some of the UK’s most popular shopping malls including Metrocentre, Lakeside and Trafford Centre, said it had granted the consortium of Saudi Arabia’s Olayan and Canadian property investor Brookfield Asset Management access “to certain due diligence materials”.
It added that a further announcement would be made “when appropriate”.
Intu said it would issue a trading update for the period from July 1 “as soon as practicable”.
The statement will include a valuation of the company’s investment and development properties.
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