Norges Bank Investment Management has bought out Invesco’s stake in Shaftesbury to build a more dominant position in the company, narrowing the gap with its biggest shareholder Sammy Tak Lee.
The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund and second largest shareholder bought the 8.2% stake of the previously third largest shareholder at £9.70 per share. Norges now holds 20.86%.
Lee, who owns the neighbouring 1.3m sq ft Langham Estate, holds 25.02% of Shaftesbury through holding companies that he controls. Earlier this month he voted against resolutions at Shaftesbury annual general meeting which prevented the management from issuing new equity freely as a cash box rather than a full rights issue where all shareholders must be offered the opportunity to buy in.
The purchase of Invesco’s stake by Norges is a sign of shareholder solidarity in the wake of the disruption. Lee has in recent years held discussions with prospective partners over making a bid for the company, and in 2015 made a lowball 888p offer for a 9.3% share.
Any prospective future takeover of the company would almost certainly need the buy in of Norges or Lee.
Through the purchase Norges has further bolstered what was already a vast super-prime West End portfolio. Alongside The Crown Estate it owns a 50% stake in Regent Street and a 57.8% stake in the Pollen Estate.
In the aftermath of the Brexit vote in 2016 it grabbed on the opportunity to buy Aberdeen Asset Management’s 355-361 Oxford Street, W1 as the fund manager was forced to offload assets to pay back redemption requests and has since pumped around £400m into the area.
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