Australian real estate money manager Centuria made an off-market takeover bid for Primewest, in a deal that would create a A$15.5 billion ($12 billion) firm.
A filing with the Australian stock exchange said real estate firm Primewest's board has unanimously recommended the merger, in the absence of a superior proposal and subject to an independent expert to deem the merger to be fair and reasonable to Primewest shareholders.
Primewest's board — whose directors own 53% of the firm's securities — intend to accept the merger. The firm runs A$5 billion in assets in listed, unlisted and private funds.
The deal would see John Bond, David Scwartz and Jim Litis, Primewest's founders, entering into two-year employment contracts as senior executives of Centuria.
Centuria intends to retain Primewest's existing employees, the filing said.
"The merger represents an exciting opportunity to combine two highly complementary real estate platforms that share similar philosophies and strong track records," John McBain, joint CEO at Centuria, said in the filing. "Primewest has a strong distribution platform and expertise across a range of sectors and geographies which are complementary to Centuria. Joint CEO Jason Huljich and I will be delighted to welcome the Primewest executives to the Centuria group and look forward to working closely with them to grow the combined platform."
Mr. McBain said the merged group will be "strategically poised" for further growth in the health care and agricultural sectors in particular.
The acquisition process is set to begin mid-June.
