DTZ has named Australian support services group UGL as its preferred bidder.
In a stock market announcement released today, the property services firm said that UGL had until 5pm on 6 December to announce a firm intention to make an offer for the firm.
However, in a subsequent announcement today, UGL said that while it had been in discussions with DTZ over a possible offer for the company, there was “no certainty that a firm offer will be made by UGL for DTZ”.
DTZ said that a potential combination of DTZ and UGL “could create one of the world’s largest real estate services operations”.
The Australia-listed firm has a current market capitalisation of A$2.1bn (£1.4bn) and total revenue of A$4.6bn (£3.0bn). The pro forma combined 2011 revenue of UGL Services and DTZ would amount to £1.2bn,
the third-largest in the real estate services industry globally.
DTZ said the combined property services business would have around 24,000 permanent employees, 225 offices and operate in 45 countries. The key strategic benefit would be the bringing together of DTZ’s business scale in Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific with UGL’s end-to-end corporate real estate and facilities management services to corporations, governments and institutions in Australia, New Zealand, North America and the Middle East.
The valuation of DTZ derived from the UGL proposal, however, means that, given the level of debt within DTZ, there is minimal value, if any, that may be attributed to the ordinary shares of DTZ.
bridget.oconnell@estatesgazette.com
