LondonMetric and LXi agree £4.1bn merger

LondonMetric and LXi have reached agreement on their planned all-share merger. News broke at the end of last year that the two were in talks about a team-up, in a deal that would see LondonMetric buy all of LXi’s shares. The merger will create a new REIT with a market capitalisation of £4.1bn and a combined portfolio valued at £6.2bn. That would make the enlarged company the fourth-largest REIT behind SEGRO, Landsec and Unite Students. Under the deal agreed, LXi investors will receive 0.55 New LondonMetric shares for each LXi share. These will be priced at 197.4p. This represents a premium of approximately 9% to LXi’s share price of 99.5p, and a 13% lift on its average share price over the month. However, it also implies an NTA discount of 4%. Following completion of the merger, existing LondonMetric shareholders will hold approximately 54% and LXi shareholders will hold approximately 46% of the enlarged issued share capital of LondonMetric. It is expected that Nick Leslau will join the LondonMetric board as a non-executive director. To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews Photo by Gerd Altmann/Pixabay