US Retail property titan David Simon has taken a swipe at intu – the company that rejected a bid from him back in 2010 – and its share price.
The chairman and chief executive of Simon Property Group said that intu’s current share price of 320p, 25% less than Simon’s offer for intu’s predecessor Capital Shopping Centres, showed that the company’s management made the wrong decision to rebuff the approach.
“The board turned it down without, in my opinion, really a lot of study and I remember the bankers came up with a price of 650p. Our offer was 425p and the stocks were 310-320p,” he told delegates at the EPRA conference in Berlin this week.
He added: “Now, we priced it right, and the price hasn’t reached our offer since we made the bid five years ago. I think it speaks for itself.”
Instead of doing a deal with Simon, CSC opted for a deal with Northern tycoon John Whittaker. Whittaker’s company, Peel Holdings, became the largest shareholder in CSC with a 23.2% stake in exchange for his £1.6bn Trafford Centre in Manchester, equating to 400p per share.
Simon, who controlled 5.1% of CSC already, says that shareholders got a raw deal. “As a shareholder, I thought they were passing control without a premium to Peel. It didn’t bother me they were going to buy the asset but if you’re passing control you want a premium,” he said.
Since the deal Whittaker’s stake has been diluted due to rights issues. However, he has been topping it up and in April and May bought £11.9m of shares.
Intu declined to comment.
News from EPRA
• Listed real estate firms with more female executives perform better
• Gaw Capital predicts rising outflow of Chinese capital
• JP Morgan’s Leckie says real estate stock will be on the rise for two years
• Real estate accounts for 13% of Europe’s IPOs
To read more go to egi.co.uk
