Green Reit picks UK’s Henderson Park as preferred bidder

Green Reit has entered exclusive talks over a potential sale to Henderson Park, a fast-growing UK property that entered the Irish market in recent months.

Dublin-listed offices and warehousing group Green has seen its market value soar to as high as €1.29 billion after putting itself on the market earlier this year.

Henderson Park, set up by former Goldman Sachs and Mount Kellett partner Nicholas Weber in 2016, was known to be among three final bidders who submitted best and final offers ahead of a deadline last Thursday.

Green Reit said on Wednesday that an independent committee of the board, excluding company co-founders Stephen Vernon and Pat Gunne, has decided to enter talks with an affiliate of Henderson Park regarding a possible firm offer for the company.

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“There can be no certainty that a firm offer will be made, nor as to the terms on which any offer will be made,” it said in a stock-exchange announcement, which didn’t reveal any financial details. A spokesman declined to comment on the value of the Henderson Park bid.

Shares in Green Reit, which became the first real-estate investment trust to float on the Irish stock market in 2013, have jumped by as much as 20 per cent to €1.842 since the company announced in mid-April that it had decided to sell itself as its has been “subject to a material and persistent discount to its material net asset value per share for over three years”. Its last reported net asset value was €1.83 per share at the end of December.

Market value

At its peak last week, Green Reit’s market value was €1.29 billon. However, the stock dipped 1 per cent to €1.80 on Wednesday as the market digested news of the Henderson Park talks and reined in expectations on the price at which it will be sold.

Henderson Park Capital entered the Irish market in recent months, teaming up with developer Joe O’Reilly’s Chartered Land in May to buy the landmark Heuston South Quarter in Dublin from US property group Marathon Asset Management for €222 million.

The other two final bidders for Green Reit were California-based real estate group Kennedy Wilson and a unit of German savings bank DekaBank, according to sources.

Portfolio

Green Reit raised €300 million in an initial public offering (IPO) in July 2013, months after legislation paving the way for such trusts in the Republic had been enacted.

The group went on to amass a €1.48 billion portfolio of prime office, logistics and development assets, with the help of additional funds raised through the issuance of additional equity and debt.

The portfolio includes Horizon Logistics Park, close to Dublin Airport and the M50 motorway; One Molesworth Street, which is partly let to British bank Barclays and Canadian investment bank TD Securities; and the Central Park office complex in Sandyford, in south Dublin.