Frasers Property (formerly: Frasers Cpt (FCL))

[CityFarmer]

It means final offer, if no new offer on the table...

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FRASERS CENTREPOINT LIMITED'S OFFER IS BEST AND FINAL IN ABSENCE OF
COMPETING PROPOSAL
 $4.48 is best and final Offer price in the absence of a competing proposal
 Offer will immediately be declared free from all conditions if more than 50%
acceptances are achieved (including under IAF)

http://infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/Australa...eID=307114

[greengiraffe]

Only Asians got $, angmos typically needs financial engineering...

It means final offer, if no new offer on the table...

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FRASERS CENTREPOINT LIMITED'S OFFER IS BEST AND FINAL IN ABSENCE OF
COMPETING PROPOSAL
 $4.48 is best and final Offer price in the absence of a competing proposal
 Offer will immediately be declared free from all conditions if more than 50%
acceptances are achieved (including under IAF)

http://infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/Australa...eID=307114

[greengiraffe]

Frasers tipped to win battle for Australand
KYLAR LOUSSIKIAN AND BEN WILMOT THE AUSTRALIAN JULY 29, 2014 12:00AM

SINGAPORE-listed Frasers Centrepoint is favoured to win the takeover battle for the $2.6 billion Australand Property Group unless rival Stockland can find a way of injecting more cash into its offer for the property developer and investor.

Frasers yesterday declared its $4.48 per share Australand takeover bid to be its final offer in the absence of a competing proposal. The Singapore-based company in June caught Stockland off guard with its surprise cash bid for Australand.

But hopes for a dramatic bidding contest for Australand’s valuable residential developments and $3bn office and industrial portfolio have so far been dashed.

Stockland is yet to come back with another sweetened bid and about 40 per cent of Australand’s register has fallen into the hands of hedge funds, which may favour a cash offer.

Frasers and Australand struck up an implementation agreement early this month and later won approval for the takeover from the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Frasers, in an announcement to the Singapore Exchange yesterday, said it would declare the offer unconditional prior to its August 7 close once it had won more than 50 per cent acceptances, given it had the backing of Australand’s directors and the FIRB.

JPMorgan analyst Richard Jones said he did not expect a counter-bid from Stockland, given there was a board-accepted offer in place. This meant that Stockland would need to quite substantially lift its mainly scrip bid or introduce considerably more cash, he said. But that appeared to be difficult given Stockland’s aim of keeping an A-credit rating and its gearing under 30 per cent, he added.

Stockland yesterday noted the Frasers announcement and said it would consider its options. It owns a strategic 19.9 per cent stake in Australand, which it purchased in March ahead of its attempted takeover in April.

Australand shares closed at $4.51 per share yesterday.

[greengiraffe]

Towkay Chaoren appears to be in pole position to expand big down under in view of City Dev's emergence for the race of another quality property portfolio deemed noncore again by Leighton... unfortunately Stockland is again the competitor...

[greengiraffe]

Stockland holds the cards at Australand
Edited by Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and Gretchen Friemann
449 words
30 Jul 2014
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2014. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.
Seven weeks ago, Stockland's tilt at Australand looked in tatters. But those writing off the listed developer should remember the adage, it ain't over until the fat lady sings.

In fact, rather than limping off stage left, Stockland appears to be extracting its pound of flesh from Singapore's Frasers Centrepoint, the widely-assumed victor in this long-running takeover race. There is even a reasonable chance its $2.6 billion bid for Australand, judged a knockout when submitted in June, will collapse.

And despite the numerous arguments aired against any Stockland counter offer, the developer, headed by ex-UBS stalwart Mark Steinert, now appears to hold all the cards.

Frasers' bid closes on August 7, but regulatory restrictions mean the Singapore giant has until Thursday to alter the terms of its takeover offer. While Frasers may opt to extend the closure date, many predict it will remove the 50.1 per cent minimum acceptance threshold. So far the group has less than 5 per cent of Australand.

While such a small amount is not necessarily unusual in a competitive process, Frasers risks losing its quarry altogether if everyone opts to flood the exit on the final close date.

Eliminating a threshold from its bid conditions would also deprive hedge funds of the accumulating dividend with which most are financing their exposure. The change would also guarantee a prompt payout with the activation of the settlement time frame.

While this strategy carries risks – Frasers may wind up with a minority stake – it may end the game of brinkmanship between Stockland and the hedge funds, which now own close to a quarter of Australand.

Alternatively, a small increase from Stockland, which already owns 19.9 per cent, could tip the scales. Another tilt from the developer is what the hedge funds are betting on and its scrip offer currently outweighs Frasers' $4.48 per security cash offer by 5¢.

Stockland promulgates discipline, but the run on its share price makes Australand an increasingly attractive play. Funding the bid is relatively cheaper, the synergies are numerous and there is material earnings accretion. Yet why would investors plump for securities over cash, and how could Stockland complete due diligence prior to the closure of Frasers' bid? Those close to the Singaporean giant believe there is zero chance of a counter offer. But for many hedge funds the upside is clear. The scrip would clear a short position on Stockland, which would otherwise have to be paid out at the current market price, allowing them to take the Australand profit and run.


Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited

Document AFNR000020140729ea7u0001v

[greengiraffe]

Towkay certainly got style - playing show hand given that there is another alternative on the table, Leighton's non core property business. 7 Aug akan datang...

Frasers declares its bid for Australand is final
THE AUSTRALIAN AUGUST 01, 2014 12:00AM

Sarah Danckert

Property Reporter
Melbourne
AUSTRALAND suitor Frasers Centrepoint has thrown down the gauntlet to rival bidder Stockland and the hedge funds that have not sold into its $2.6 billion bid, declaring it will walk away from the offer if acceptances do not quickly improve.

The Singaporean company yesterday declared its offer final and announced the offer period would not be extended if it did not win the support of 50 per cent of shareholders by August 7.

Acceptances for Frasers’ $4.48-per-share cash offer are remaining stubbornly low at below 3 per cent, despite the company and independent experts backing the deal.

One fund manager described the move as “very surprising”, and adding: “It’s really hardball stuff.”

Another fund manager said such a move could be designed to force Stockland — which saw its scrip-and-cash offer trumped by Frasers — to “put up or shut up”.

The only way Frasers can now extend the offer is if Australand receives a separate offer from a rival suitor, potentially raising the stakes that Stockland will return with an improved bid.

Stockland holds 19.9 per cent of Australand while the rest of the register is now mainly made up of hedge funds with a hankering for the accrued dividend available in the Frasers offer.

Sources expect the deal to go down to the wire with hedge funds expected to start accepting next week and Stockland following suit just ahead of the close date. However, another scenario could see the hedge funds and Stockland hold out, meaning the deal will lapse.

Such a move would allow Stockland to make another offer in the months following, sources said. But it is understood that any future offer by Stockland would have to be superior to the one presented by Frasers and Stockland’s investors are wary of the company overpaying for its rival. Stockland declined to comment, though it has previously said it was still considering its options.

Most analysts believe that Stockland won’t return with a higher bid, but CLSA analysts think it could have another tilt.

Stockland is also thought to also be looking at Leighton Properties.

[greengiraffe]

http://infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/Northpoi...eID=308017

So happening...

Singapore, 1 August 2014 – Frasers Centrepoint Limited (“FCL” or the “Group”) unveiled Northpoint City, an upcoming integrated development in Nee Soon, at an exhibition launched today by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Law, Mr K. Shanmugam. Under HDB’s Remaking Our Heartland initiatives, Nee Soon has been earmarked as one of the towns undergoing a series of transformations to improve the living environment of residents. The exhibition at Northpoint Shopping Centre showcases the various components of this new icon of Nee Soon, and how Northpoint City will provide seamless connectivity to Nee Soon residents, and be a lifestyle destination in the North of Singapore.

[greengiraffe]

Stockland buying up all around
Rebecca Thistleton
1339 words
4 Aug 2014
The Australian Financial Review
AFNR
English
Copyright 2014. Fairfax Media Management Pty Limited.
When Singapor­ean property giant Frasers Centrepoint lobbed a $2.6 billion cash bid for listed developer Australand in June, it appeared to leave an unsolicited scrip bid from Stockland made two months earlier in tatters.

While analysts and investors believe it unlikely that Stockland would sweeten their offer, the option remains until Frasers' takeover offer closes on August 7.

Stockland has hardly sat back waiting in the meantime. The group has since bought up new properties around the country and, as The Australian Financial Review revealed in late July, is running the ruler over Leighton Properties' $7 billion portfolio.

Regardless of whether or not an Aust­raland takeover is successful, Stockland is set to grow.

The group, led by ex-UBS boss Mark Steinert, is on track to record 5 per cent growth for the year. About 60 per cent of the group's revenue is from rents, which represent about 3 to 4 per cent growth.

The rest has needed to come from the riskier development arm of the business.

Stockland is one of the country's biggest diversified managers and developers and enjoys steady revenue streams across businesses, but it has made no secret of the desire to cash in on an upturn in the housing ­market and the offshore appetite for Australian housing.

It acquired a 19.9 per cent stake in Australand in March, which was an opportunity to quickly expand its industrial portfolio and benefit from their medium-density apartment portfolio when demand for units stands at record highs.

The takeover bid came a month later and Stockland's mostly scrip offer stands at $4.54, while Frasers Centrepoint has offered a $4.48 all-cash bid.

A bidding war between Frasers and Stockland over Australand is unlikely.

But though Stockland has said their offer is final, market buzz suggests a counter-offer cannot be discounted entirely.

Then there is the Leighton bid. Singapore's largest listed developer, City Developments, is also in the running for the residential and office portfolio, which could sell for about $500 million.

By the time Stockland reports on August 18, the market will have a better sense of Australand's future ownership and what Stockland plans to do with its near-20 per cent holding.

One certainty is that when Steinert delivers his address, strength in the new housing market and future opportunity for further investment there will be a strong point.Primed for organic growth

Regardless of whether its takeover wishes for either Australand or Leighton are granted, Stockland is still poised to expand its portfolios and the group is primed for organic growth in its industrial and residential businesses.

Steinert's predecessor, Matthew Quinn, stuck to three key portfolios – known as his "three R strategy" – retirement, residential and retail.

Since coming on board at the beginning of 2013, Steinert has sought opportunities to grow beyond those core areas.

He recently told Morningstar the group saw good long-term risk-adjusted returns in industrial development and ownership, and that he did not believe the risk profile was remarkably different between industrial property and the other commercial sectors.

Not long after making its play on Australand, the group paid $53.5 million at the end of June for the 12-hectare Brownes Dairy site in Perth. It was the third major industrial acquisition for the 2013-14 financial year after buying warehouses and industrial land in Sydney.

Stockland is understood to be working on further industrial acquisitions.

Steinert has also flagged an opportunity to sell part or whole interests in some of its more mature assets, particularly from its office portfolio, and to move that money into its shopping centre development pipeline.

The group's shopping centre developments have shown 12 to 14 per cent total returns and stable yields around 7 to 8 per cent.

At the same time, Steinert has reassured investors that he would not stray from ­Stockland's traditional approach to asset allocation.

But beyond Stockland's core investment holdings, the upcycle in residential and retirement presents major opportunities for growth.

Stockland retirement chief Stephen Bull told the Financial Review in July the group still wanted to expand its presence in that sector, after the paper's Street Talk column revealed the group was planning to sell off 11 retirement assets worth $60 million to $70 million.

In the residential business, house and land is Stockland's bread and butter. But its medium-density projects and built-form housing investment are set to rise.

The move to built form stems from where demand in the housing market is coming from. Stockland estimates about 15 per cent of buyers want a house-and-land package; the rest want finished homes.

So while moving into built form is seen as a new move for Stockland, it could be a low-risk way to expand the group's housing pipeline, given the strong demand for residential property.

While there has been some softness in Victoria's house and land market, projects in Sydney continue to sell out early.Phenomenal new-home buyer response

Stockland's NSW residential general manager, Jeremy Bryden, described the response from new-home buyers as "phenomenal": the group's latest release in ­Sydney's north-west at Marsden Park was a sellout. So long as interest rates remain low, demand for new housing is expected to continue.

At the same time, about half of Stockland's residential customers are first-home buyers and that target market has been hit by a severe lack of affordability, particularly around Sydney.

The heat in Sydney's housing market has led to prices growing 14 per cent higher in the year to July, according to RP Data's latest figures, released on Friday.

If market sentiment were to shift or interest rates to rise, the group's diversification within its residential portfolio offers a broad buffer.

Stockland has about 65 residential projects under way and they are spread across the country.

Property pundits have tipped Queensland as the market ready for price growth and it appears Stockland is in agreement.

Steinert addressed a Property Council function in Brisbane in late July talking up the group's interest in that market, noting there is about $3.3 billion invested in the state. Stockland intends to invest at least another $3 billion there over the next five to six years. "The quicker we can get that on the ground the better," he said.

He has also talked up a wish to have more medium-density projects in the pipeline.

However, Stockland has not targeted offshore investors with residential projects the way other listed developers have, although its stake in Australand has exposed it to the lucrative Asian investor market .

UBS research recently singled out Lend Lease and Mirvac as the best placed listed groups to capture foreign demand for housing. Almost 80 per cent of foreign approvals for new housing has been centred around NSW and Victoria, much of that in high-density projects around the CBDs.

That demand was reflected in Australand's strong results posted in its July ­half-yearly report. Securing Australand would be one way Stockland could tap into potential future gains.

But the more likely outcome is that Frasers will be the winner and there is every chance Stockland will negotiate an asset swap in exchange for accepting the offer.

Still, CLSA's head of Australia real estate, John Kim, expects Stockland to have another go and up its appeal with a combined cash-and-scrip offer.

However, if that were to happen, there is every chance Stockland's share price would drop. Its share price is crucial as it determines the value of a scrip bid.

Frasers would then have the option of exercising matching rights.

Selling out of its near-20 per cent stake in Australand could be the group's next move.

If Stockland does sell, it will take home $85 million in profits.

rebecca.thistleton@fairfaxmedia.com.au

[piggo]

Finally FCL becoming substantial shareholder 2.9% to 8.94%.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.Fil...lwZT0z&t=1

[greengiraffe]

The bid for ALZ remains conditional on the offer being accepted from at least 50.1% of shareholders by 7 Aug 14 which is 2 days away.

Hopefully, the bid fails and FCL can go look elsewhere for possibly better deals such as Leighton Holdings divestment of non-core assets.

Vested
GG

Finally FCL becoming substantial shareholder 2.9% to 8.94%.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.Fil...lwZT0z&t=1