Martin Property Group division eyes ground rent fund takeover
Victoria Property Holdings has tabled a possible £32.5m offer to take over Ground Rents Income Fund.
Victoria Property Holdings is a division of family-owned real estate investor Martin Property Group, which owns retail, residential and commercial properties across the UK.
The group said it had made the potential offer for Ground Rents Income Fund after a year of closely following the listed business’s activities.
Victoria Property Holdings has tabled a possible £32.5m offer to take over Ground Rents Income Fund.
Victoria Property Holdings is a division of family-owned real estate investor Martin Property Group, which owns retail, residential and commercial properties across the UK.
The group said it had made the potential offer for Ground Rents Income Fund after a year of closely following the listed business’s activities.
“We see a mature business that has been navigating wider residential market uncertainty, which we expect to continue in the medium-term,” said Victoria Property.
Victoria Property added that it had submitted three non-binding indicative offers to the board of Ground Rents Income in November and December 2024, but that despite increasing its indicative offers on two occasions, the board had “declined to engage with Victoria Property and rejected each of the prior offers”.
This latest offer is at 34p per share, a 48.5% premium to Ground Rents Income’s closing share price of 22p on 7 January and a 57.1% premium to the volume-weighted average price of 21.64p for the three-month period to 7 January.
Victoria Property’s potential bid for the business follows a decision by Ground Rents Income’s shareholders in April 2023 to liquidate the company’s £106.1m portfolio in a “controlled, orderly and timely manner”. Since then just three assets have been sold for a total of £11m.
Victoria Property said it believed that the current strategy would lead to a “prolonged exit of many years with elevated operating costs” and that its takeover offer provided a “highly attractive” option that would allow shareholders a fill, all-cash exit.
It said: “The current investment policy carries risk, and we believe does not provide a certain exit of the entire portfolio for GRIO shareholders. We firmly believe the recent asset sale of 10% of portfolio value has not materially improved sentiment around GRIO’s shares and has not improved shareholder value.”
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