The Wellcome Trust has made a £506m takeover bid for developer Urban&Civic.
The cash offer of 345p per share represents a 63.5% premium to the 211p closing price on 5 November and is 53.8% above the average share price of 224.3p over the past six months. It is also more than Urban&Civic’s unaudited EPRA NAV of 343.2p per share at 30 September 2020.
Urban&Civic’s board intends to recommend the offer as they consider the terms to be “fair and reasonable”. Its directors hold 3,377,006 (2.3%) of Urban&Civic shares.
Shareholder JO Hambro Capital Management, which has a 6.6% stake in Urban&Civic, has also said it intends to vote in favour of the offer.
“The proposal rests on comprehensive industrial logic,” said Alan Dickinson, chairman of Urban&Civic.
Peter Pereira Gray, managing partner and chief executive of the investment division of Wellcome, added that the trust believes the two firms’ “complementary strengths” will enable the delivery of Urban&Civic’s long-term potential.
For the deal to proceed, 75% of Urban&Civic’s shareholders must vote in favour of the deal, which is anticipated to complete in early 2021.
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