Australia's Abacus Storage King rebuffs billionaire Kirsh-led buyout offer

Reuters
Yesterday
UPDATE 2-Australia's Abacus Storage King rebuffs billionaire Kirsh-led buyout offer

Abacus shares rise as much as 3%

Abacus net tangible assets come in at A$1.73

Citi analysts see higher incoming offer

Rewrites, adds details on deal rejection in paragraphs 2 and 4, shares in paragraph 6 and Citi comments in paragraphs 8 and 9

By Adwitiya Srivastava and Nikita Maria Jino

May 13 (Reuters) - Australia's Abacus Storage King ASK.AX has rejected an A$1.93 billion ($1.23 billion) buyout offer from a consortium led by South African billionaire Nathan Kirsh, citing risks around valuation, timing and deal completion, it said on Tuesday.

The consortium, which includes Kirsh's family office Ki Corporation and Public Storage PSA.N, offered A$1.47 per share, which was deemed insufficient by Abacus after an independent valuation pegged its net tangible assets at A$1.73 per share.

Kirsh, who has a net worth of $7.4 billion according to Forbes, already controls around 60% of Abacus Storage King with the stake being held both directly and indirectly through the billionaire's interest in the Abacus Group.

The buyout proposal also included tax-related conditions that Abacus said could add uncertainty to the deal's completion timeline.

"The acquisition price and terms offered are insufficient to compensate for this risk," the Australian company said in a statement.

Its shares rose as much as 3% to A$1.545, their largest single-day gain since April 7.

Self-storage operator and Abacus rival National Storage REIT NSR.AX bought a nearly 4.8% stake in the company in late April.

Analysts at Citi expect the Kirsh-led consortium to potentially lift its offer to more acceptable values for existing shareholders, the company, Abacus Group and National Storage.

National Storage would be more receptive of an offer at or above net tangible assets and "potentially interested in an opportunity to play a role in a revised or restructured offer," Citi analysts said.

Shares of National Storage rose 0.6% to A$2.36.

($1 = 1.5686 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Adwitiya Srivastava and Nikita Maria Jino in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Mrigank Dhaniwala)

((Adwitiya.Srivastava@thomsonreuters.com;))

Disclaimer: Investing carries risk. This is not financial advice. The above content should not be regarded as an offer, recommendation, or solicitation on acquiring or disposing of any financial products, any associated discussions, comments, or posts by author or other users should not be considered as such either. It is solely for general information purpose only, which does not consider your own investment objectives, financial situations or needs. TTM assumes no responsibility or warranty for the accuracy and completeness of the information, investors should do their own research and may seek professional advice before investing.

Most Discussed

  1. 1
     
     
     
     
  2. 2
     
     
     
     
  3. 3
     
     
     
     
  4. 4
     
     
     
     
  5. 5
     
     
     
     
  6. 6
     
     
     
     
  7. 7
     
     
     
     
  8. 8
     
     
     
     
  9. 9
     
     
     
     
  10. 10