SINGAPORE and Sydney dual-listed property player AVJennings (AVJ), which is controlled by real estate tycoon Simon Cheong, is set to be taken private after American real estate fund Proprium Capital Partners made an offer at 67 Australian cents per share.
The offer price, which values the company at A$374 million (S$326 million), represents a 103 per cent premium to AVJ’s closing price on Nov 27 of 33 Australian cents. It is also a 102 per cent premium to its one-month volume-weighted average price of 33.17 Australian cents on Nov 27, and a 108 per cent premium to the stock’s three-month volume-weighted average price of 33.21 Australian cents on Nov 27.
Following the privatisation, AVJ will become part of Avid Property, an Australian residential and industrial developer controlled by Proprium.
Proprium is a specialist real estate investment manager with approximately A$4 billion in assets under management, including Avid, which is one of the group’s flagship investments. Avid is one of the largest privately held residential developers in Australia with a portfolio which includes more than 6,300 residential blocks with 75,000 residents and a gross revenue pipeline of A$5 billion.
AVJ, which was set up about 90 years ago as a residential property developer in Melbourne, is controlled by Mr Cheong, who chairs the board of directors. The stock has been thinly traded in Singapore, largely due to the fact that its business is based in Australia.
Cheong, 67, served two terms as president of the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore, from 2007 to 2010.
Most of the 2,000 Singapore-based AVJ shareholders were formerly shareholders of previously-listed bookstore chain MPH. This came about when in 1999, Mr Cheong’s SC Global acquired a controlling stake of more than 53 per cent in AVJ through its reverse takeover of MPH. In 2002, MPH provided an in specie rights issue which distributed 0.8 AVJ shares for every existing MPH share.
Propium, through its takeover vehicle PM Nominees C, has given the nod for AVJ to pay a fully franked special dividend of up to about 6 Australian cents per share to eligible shareholders on or before the completion.
The deal is subject to regulatory approvals in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. THE STRAITS TIMES
