Hostile buyer may lose at Hong Kong hide-and-seek

Spring Real Estate Investment Trust

26/10/2018 04:03

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions
expressed are his own.)
    By Alec Macfarlane
    HONG KONG, Oct 26 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Private equity
firm PAG is trying to bypass a property owner’s management with
its takeover bid. Local conventions make it hard to track down
Spring REIT’s many small investors and there are restrictions on
contacting them directly. It’s time to rewrite the rules of the
game. 
    Full view will be published shortly.
    On Twitter https://twitter.com/AlecMac11

    CONTEXT NEWS
    - The property investment unit of Asian private equity firm
PAG said on Oct. 19 that it would terminate its HK$6.2 billion
($785 million) offer to buy Hong Kong-listed Spring Real Estate
Investment Trust if unitholders approve the proposed acquisition
of a shopping centre in China’s Guangdong province. 
    - PAG Real Estate said Spring REIT’s deal would reduce the
company’s net asset value per unit by 8.1 percent to HK$5.56,
its lowest level since the company’s initial public offering in
2013. The firm urged unitholders to vote against the transaction
at the company’s extraordinary general meeting. A date has not
yet been set. PAG and parties acting in concert with it own a
14.8 percent stake in Spring REIT.
    - For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can
click on  MAC/ 
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    <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
PAG launches $671 million unsolicited takeover bid for Spring
REIT     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1WC2AH
Spring REIT announcement     http://www.springreit.com/files/LTN20181018954.pdf
BREAKINGVIEWS - Barbarians pushing boundaries at Asian gates   
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1WJ1GZ
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
 (Editing by Jeffrey Goldfarb and Katrina Hamlin)
 ((alec.macfarlane@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
alec.macfarlane.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))