FTSE 100 property giant Segro rejects £13.5bn Prologis bid
Segro has rejected a second and third takeover bid from US rival Prologis, as the tussle between the two property giants steps up a gear.
The FTSE 100 real estate firm rejected Prologis’ latest bid last week, which amounted to £9.93 per share and valued the group’s total shares at £13.5bn.
Prologis said its latest offer proposed to exchange 0.0890 of its own shares for each Segro share along with £2.7bn in cash. This bid comprised a 9.7 per cent premium on Segro’s share price, it said.
The US real estate owner hit out at Segro’s insistence that it is being undervalued by its takeover approaches.
Segro’s own valuation is “unrealistic,” Prologis said, because the FTSE 100 firm has understated the risks of its “speculative, long-dated, often un-zoned and untenanted development projects”.
Prologis also criticised Segro for slapping down a historical takeover offer dating to March 2024. Shareholders in the FTSE 100 firm would be 36.5 per cent better off now if Segro had taken this offer, Prologis claimed.
Segro’s suitor also said that it is considering setting up a secondary listing of its own shares on the London Stock Exchange.
The US firm said: “Prologis’ proposal provides upfront value, greater flexibility and long-term upside opportunity.
“Segro’s standalone plan relies on flawless execution of a significant, long-dated development pipeline, substantial third-party funding and an unjustified valuation.”
The FTSE 100 firm responded to Prologis’ latest intervention on Monday, revealing that it had met with the management of its US suitor over the weekend and would “continue to make themselves available to engage further”.
Andy Harrison, Segro’s chairman, said: “The board does not believe that Prologis’s latest proposal to acquire Segro reflects the quality, scarcity or long-term prospects of Segro’s portfolio and platform and has been rejected unanimously by the board.”
Prologis to pursue Segro ‘aggressively’
The dispute over the value of this takeover offer centres on the two firm’s data centre estate, with both arguing that theirs is more valuable than the other’s.
Earlier this month, Segro chief executive David Sleath told investors that Prologis’ plan would swap full ownership of the UK firm’s data centre pipeline with a “materially lower shareholding in a different, more US-focused portfolio”.
But Prologis hit back the following day, telling Segro shareholders that it offers a “more experienced, larger and better-capitalised data centre platform”.
Analysts at investment firm Stifel said it expected the two parties could agree on a 1,110p per share offer. But they warned that Segro’s management is “well able to realise the value inherent in its portfolio”.
A sale would “have significantly negative implications for the very survival” of the UK-listed real estate investment sector, Stifel said.
A person close to the matter said that they expect Prologis to pursue Segro “quite aggressively”.
“In their heart [Prologis] are American entrepreneurs. Once they’ve seen something and they want it, that’s it really. I see no way that this doesn’t get incredibly messy at some point,” they added.
Segro shares slid two per cent on Monday’s market open to 879p.