Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Toronto, and DEXUS Property Group raised their bid a second time to acquire Australian REIT Commonwealth Property Office Fund to A$3 billion (US$2.72 billion), according to a filing Wednesday with the Australian Securities Exchange.
The C$192.8 billion (US$181.7 billion) pension fund board and DEXUS increased their offer to A$1.268 per unit of the REIT. The previous revised offer of A$1.21 per unit had been accepted in November pending due diligence by the board of Commonwealth Managed Investments, which oversees the Commonwealth REIT. That due diligence was completed this week, but a rival bid of A$1.235 a share was made by another Australian REIT, GPT Group, on Nov. 19. An earlier bid of A$1.15 per unit was rejected by the CMI.
The Commonwealth REIT is a portfolio of Australian office buildings with a total value of A$3.9 billion. DEXUS, which has a 14.9% interest in the Commonwealth REIT, has said it would keep its stake.
In a separate ASX filing, CMI said its independent board committee “will consider the DEXUS offer (and) will make further announcements in due course regarding both the DEXUS offer and also the off-market takeover offer which was received from GPT Group.”
Linda Sims, CPPIB spokeswoman, said the board had no comment beyond DEXUS' filing.
