Cambridge Industrial Trust manager's biggest shareholder mulling stake sale

THE biggest shareholder of industrial landlord Cambridge Industrial Trust's manager is considering the sale of its 56 per cent stake.

National Australia Bank group vehicle nabInvest Capital Partners (NAB) has received "non-binding expressions of interest" for its shares in Cambridge Industrial Trust Management (CITM), CITM said in a Singapore Exchange filing on Thursday right after posting the trust's third-quarter results.

CITM said it had been informed of this by NAB, but did not disclose when it had been told or when NAB had received the expressions of interest.

This comes after the second-largest CITM shareholder, Oxley Global, was also approached to sell its stake. CITM had said in an Aug 14 bourse filing that it "understands that Oxley Global ... has received several non-binding expressions of interest for all or part of its 24 per cent effective stake".

CITM said in its statement on Thursday that Oxley Global and NAB have both "informed the manager they are considering the offers", though it added that "neither NAB nor Oxley has entered into binding agreement(s) for the sale of their stakes". It did not say who the parties on the other side were.

NAB and Oxley Global together hold an indirect 80 per cent stake in CITM. The third shareholder is Japanese conglomerate Mitsui, which holds 20 per cent.