BT to merge property trusts
BT Funds Management is to merge the BT Property Trust and BT Office Trust to create Austra-lia's biggest office-specific property trust, with total assets of $1.5 billion.
BT Funds Management is to merge the BT Property Trust and BT Office Trust to create Austra-lia's biggest office-specific property trust, with total assets of $1.5 billion.
The merged entity will have a market capitalisation of $1.2 billion and represent four per cent of the S&P/ASX 200 property trust index, enabling the group to attract new local and overseas in-vestors.
"It is a quantum leap forward," says BT Funds Management real estate division head Gary Sy-mons.
The new trust will have a diversified 11 prime and A-grade office, spread across Sydney, Mel-bourne and Perth. This included 400 George Street and a 30 per cent interest in Grosvenor Place in Sydney, and 120 Collins Street in Melbourne.
Under the merger deal, BTP unitholders are being offered 1.33 new BTO units for each BTP unit, or they can elect to receive cash for all or part of their units.
The offer is conditional upon 75 per cent approval by both BTO and BTP unitholders at meetings proposed for September.
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