Vonovia takeover of Austria's Conwert now a done deal
The DAX-listed German residential property investor and manager Vonovia SE has succeeded in gaining the minimum acceptance threshold of 50% plus one share in its takeover offer for listed Austrian group Conwert Immobilien. Official notification of the final results will be posted this week on the Vonovia website and in the obligatory 'newspaper of record' in Vienna on Dec. 23rd.
The deal translates to a price of about €2.9bn, including debt. Conwert shareholders can choose to get €16.16 euros cash per share or 74 Vonovia shares for every 149 Conwert shares they own, implying a price of €17.58 euros per Conwert share based on the closing price the day before the offer was announced.
Vonovia, Germany's largest residential property company, said that Conwert shareholders who have not yet accepted the offer can tender their shares, at unchanged terms, over the three-month period to March 23, 2017.
Vonovia said last month that it did not need to raise fresh capital for the takeover project even if all Conwert shareholders accept the cash offer, which would cost Vonovia around 1.65 billion euros ($1.75 billion). The Austrian Federal Competition Authority as well as the German Bundeskartellamt have already given their approval for the transaction.
Germany's Adler Real Estate (adler-ag.com), which holds around 26 percent of Conwert, has said it would accept the share exchange offer for cash. The takeover was effectively sealed when listed German investor Adler Real Estate offered Vonovia its 26.2% stake in Conwert. Adler had been agitating for change at Conwert for months, accusing it of failing to exploit its market opportunities in Germany.
The deal comes nine months after Vonovia aborted a four-month takeover battle to acquire Germany's second largest housing company Deutsche Wohnen AG, while Conwert itself fended off an unwelcome €980 million takeover bid from Deutsche Wohnen at much the same time, at a price then of €11.50 per Conwert share.
Vonovia owns and manages about 340,000 apartments across Germany, valued at about €24bn, along with a further 54,000 apartments it manages for third parties. It employs 6,900 staff across Germany.