Hammerson shuns Klépierre bid

Klépierre, the French shopping centre group, is adamant that it will take over UK group Hammerson and will succeed in derailing Hammerson’s pursuit of Intu Properties.

Klépierre, the French shopping centre group, is adamant that it will take over UK group Hammerson and that it will succeed in derailing Hammerson’s pursuit of Intu Properties.

Klépierre increased its bid for Hammerson 3% from £4.88bn to £5.04bn on Wednesday. It is offering 635p per share, to be paid half in cash and half in new Klépierre shares.

But Hammerson has again scoffed at the bid.

“The board has considered the revised proposal from Klépierre carefully. At 635p, it is only a 3% increase on the previous proposal and continues very significantly to undervalue the company,” said Hammerson chairman David Tyler.

Hammerson CEO David Atkins said his company was focused on completing a deal to take over UK shopping centre owner Intu Properties.

Hammerson made a £3.4bn all-share offer for Intu in December 2017. Should that deal go ahead, Hammerson would become the UK’s largest property group.

It would bring together the UK’s largest shopping centres into one fund, which includes London’s Brent Cross, Birmingham’s Bullring and Manchester’s Trafford Centre.

Hammerson said it remained open to discuss “any proposal from Klépierre which properly reflects the value of the company”, but until such an offer came its mission to buy Intu would continue.

In terms of relevant European legislation, Klépierre had until Monday April 16 to make a firm offer for Hammerson.

Hammerson ended trade on the JSE on Wednesday 0.45% lower at R88.92.

Nesi Chetty, a fund manager at Momentum Investments, said it was clear that Klépierre was prepared to pull out all the stops to take Hammerson out.

“Klépierre really likes the Hammerson portfolio of assets. Hammerson has recently diversified into Ireland, which has given them further growth.

“It would be difficult for Klépierre to buy a portfolio of similar size to them.

“Hammerson is adamant they are not backing down from the Intu deal but Klépierre believe their portfolio is more complementary to Hammerson than Hammerson’s portfolio is relative to Intu,” Chetty said.

Atkins said he would not finalise shareholder documents before the put up or shut up deadline of April 16. However, he was confident that Hammerson would be successful in its pursuit of Intu in 2018.