Investa Takeover Stalls as Fund Rejects Blackstone Bid

The unlisted Investa Commercial Property Fund, which controls almost 20 per cent of the Investa Office Fund, has said it will vote against Blackstone’s $3.1 billion takeover bid for the ASX-listed property trust Investa.

The unlisted fund ended speculation on Monday, confirming that it would vote against Blackstone’s bid, adding that the proposal “does not adequately reflect the value of the IOF portfolio.”

“Accordingly, ICPF confirms that they intend to vote all of the IOF securities they hold (being 19.95% of IOF) against the current Blackstone Proposal.”

The vote by ICPF was flagged last week when the fund sold a 50 per cent stake in Investa Office Management Holdings – which manages $11 billion of Australian office towers – to Macquarie.

Along with Macquarie, the Blackstone takeover drama has a new bit part player in international developer and investor Oxford Properties Group.

ICPF said that it had agreed to sell half of its stake in IOF – 9.99 per cent – to Oxford, which is backed by the $100 billion OMERS Canadian pension fund.

The fund is selling 59.8 million IOF securities representing $5.25 a share to Oxford – the same as Blackstone’s existing bid.

Related: Oxford Properties, Grocon Team Up on Barangaroo

Independent expert KPMG had previously assessed Blackstone’s bid as “not fair but reasonable”; the offer is worth $5.15 per unit once Investa’s second-half distributions are taken into account.

Fund manager APN Property has also said it will vote against Blackstone’s proposal, with the Melbourne-based investment manager had said that the net tangible assets per share figure was “out of date” and “understated” the true value of IOF’s assets.

The ICPF vote will likely derail Blackstone’s takeover bid. The vote was seen as crucial in seeing the Blackstone bid through, and it is unlikely it will move ahead unless Blackstone improve its current offer.

The ICPF announcement comes a little over a week before investors vote on Blackstone’s proposal on August 29.