Vonovia gets green light for takeover of Sweden's Victoria Park
Shareholders representing more than 50% of voting rights including call options have accepted Vonovia’s $1.08 billion cash offer for Swedish counterpart Victoria Park, Germany largest real estate company said earlier this month.
Vonovia's initial acceptance period for its SEK 38.00 per share offer has now passed, and all conditions for the takeover are complete, Vonovia said, noting it would hold at least 58% of voting shares. Vonovia also said that it would extend the offer period until July 3.
It announced its SEK 17.8bn (€1.7bn) takeover offer for Victoria Park in May. The Swedish housing company has more than 1 million sqm of residential space in Sweden, with more than 13,700 apartments valued at SEK 16.2bn.
'We have made an amicable offer to acquire Victoria Park because we want to invest in a company that puts tenants at the heart of its strategy - just like we do,' said Rolf Buch, CEO of Vonovia. 'Our business model is only sustainable if we can offer our customers high quality housing stock and improved living conditions. Together, we will be able to leverage synergies that benefit both tenants and shareholders.'
'We are very happy that a majority of our shareholders has accepted Vonovia's attractive offer,' said Per Ekelund, CEO of Victoria Park. 'With Vonovia's expertise in improving housing conditions at much better scale, we are looking forward to cooperating closely with our new majority owner - a perfect partnership with a long-term, sustainable strategy.'
The deal now does appear to be a fait accompli for Vonovia, barring a major surprise, despite the German group's engaging in a battle with US private equity investor Starwood's rival bid for Victoria Park, after Starwood built up a 24% stake after its own cash offer for the Swedish housing company in April.
Vonovia said its bid is fully financed by a line of credit from JP Morgan, and the listed German company has also just raised just under €1bn on the equity markets by privately placing 26 million new shares to fund the acquisition. Vonovia has a market capitalisation of €20.1bn, and owns and manages 394,000 apartment units in Germany, where it expects to achieve an operating profit in 2018 of more than €1bn for the first time.
Vonovia is now actively looking to expand its activities abroad, with France, Sweden and the Netherlands identified as its key initial markets. Last year it signed an agreement with France's Caisse des Depots to examine French opportunities. Earlier this year it closed on its acquisition of Austria's Buwog with its 49,000 apartments in Germany and Austria for about €5.2bn.