LAKESIDE shopping centres owners, Capital Shopping Centres have rejected an offer from Simon Property Group to the tune of just under £3 billion, describing it as inadequate reports propertyweek.com
Simon, the largest U.S. shopping centre owner, proposed buying the company for 425 pence a share in cash. The bid “very substantially undervalues the company and its prospects,” Capital Shopping said today in a statement.
Capital Shopping owns four of the U.K.’s 10 biggest shopping centres, including the Manchester Arndale and the Lakeside Shopping Centre in Essex. The offer from Indianapolis-based Simon is conditional on Capital Shopping abandoning a planned 1.6 billion-pound purchase of Trafford Centre mall in Manchester. The U.K. company said today its board plans to delay a meeting to approve that deal to late January from Dec. 20.
“I don’t think we’re done,” said Rich Moore, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Solon, Ohio. “My intuition and experience with Simon tells me when they’re interested they don’t just walk away when someone says no to the first offer.”
Capital Shopping rose 19.3 pence, or 4.9 percent, to 415.6 pence in London trading, the highest closing price since September 2009. Simon fell $2.39, or 2.5 percent, to $95.28 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
