The French mall operator, Klépierre (FRA: KPR), has made a takeover offer to Hammerson (LON: HMSO) worth £4.9 billion.
Klépierre is one of Europe’s largest owners of shopping centres, owning over 100 shopping centres across Europe. With the large offer, the group is hoping to break up the UK property firm’s agreed acquisition of Intu.
In a statement, David Tyler, Hammerson’s chairman, said the offer was “wholly inadequate and entirely opportunistic”.
“It is a calculated attempt to exploit the disconnect between our recent share price performance and the inherent value of our unique and irreplaceable portfolio which is delivering record results.
“Klépierre is asking our shareholders to accept a price for their Hammerson shares which is not only at a significant discount to their book value but includes a large element of paper in a company which in our view has a lower quality portfolio and lower growth prospects.”
The French mall operator does not yet have any presence in the UK but has malls located in 16 other countries and serves almost 150 million customers.
Hammerson owns or has stakes in 37 shopping centres across Britain, Ireland and France.
If Klépierre and Hammerson joined in a successful deal, the group would have a combined portfolio of €36 billion.
“The share price of the embattled shopping centre giant Hammerson has slumped since it announced its agreed bid for its UK rival Intu Properties, so the opportunistic 615p offer that French rival Klépierre has recently made for Hammerson is not quite as generous as it looks,” said Nick Bubb, a retail analyst.
“But, with many of its fashion and department store tenants in some trouble, Hammerson is going to have work hard now to convince its shareholders of the merits of the Intu deal.”
Following Hammerson’s agreed deal with Intu, it was revealed that France’s Unibail-Rodamco (AMS: UL) – Europe’s biggest mall operator it to buy Westfield (ASX: WFD), the Australian company that owns UK’s two highest-earning shopping centres that are based in the west and east of London. The deal is worth £19 billion and will create the world’s biggest mall operator.
Following news of Klépierre’s offer, shares in Hammerson shot up by 27 percent to 554.2p.