Centuria secures two-thirds of Augusta shares

Declares offer unconditional for full takeover

Centuria Capital has declared its takeover offer of Augusta Capital unconditional having secured 65.86% of the New Zealand property company’s shares as of Wednesday 8 July.

This means Centuria is on track for a full takeover of Augusta, providing NZ$0.22 in cash plus 0.392 Centuria stapled securities for each Augusta share.

On completion, the full takeover will increase Centuria’s AUM by 24%, to AUD $8.9 billion (NZD $9.44 billion).

John McBain, Centuria Joint CEO, said, “I am delighted to report close to two-thirds of Augusta shares have been secured within eight business days of the takeover offer commencing and that we’ve declared the offer unconditional.

“We are encouraged by the significant response and look forward to the offer completing, which will expand our funds management platform into the New Zealand market. Augusta is a substantial player in the New Zealand market with a highly effective team. We anticipate this market to be an important growth engine within the Centuria platform.”

“Moreover, given the relative strength of the Australian commercial market, Centuria’s position in the S&P/ASX 300 and our strong distribution history, we are excited to welcome so many Augusta shareholders taking up Centuria scrip.”

Centuria made its formal takeover offer on Monday 29 June.

On 30 June, Centuria NZ varied its offer by increasing the cash component from NZ$0.20 to NZ$0.22 per Augusta share. The scrip component of 0.392 Centuria stapled securities per Augusta share remained unchanged. On that date, Centuria NZ also indicated its intention for the offer to become unconditional if acceptances were received which, together with Centuria NZ’s existing shareholdings, represented 63.5% of Augusta’s shares.