Soilbuild Reit unitholders vote in favour of privatisation, Australia assets disposal

UNITHOLDERS of Soilbuild Business Space Reit (Soilbuild Reit) have voted in favour of the proposed privatisation offer from Blackstone Real Estate and Lim Chap Huat, the executive chairman of the real estate investment trust's (Reit) sponsor Soilbuild Group.

The proposed offer is via a trust scheme of arrangement. This means the outcome is determined by minorities as Mr Lim and his concert parties abstained from voting.

In an extraordinary general meeting held on Thursday, unitholders representing some 648.5 million units or 91.94 per cent voted in favour of the trust deed amendments related to the proposed privatisation. Unitholders representing some 56.8 million units or 8.06 per cent voted against the resolution.

Last month, independent financial adviser KPMG called the offer "fair and reasonable". It recommended Soilbuild Reit's independent directors to advise unitholders to vote in favour of the scheme of arrangement at the time.

Mr Lim and Blackstone Real Estate made an offer to take the Reit private with a scheme consideration of S$0.55 per unit in December 2020.

At the time of the announcement, the offer represented a premium of about 34.5 per cent, 34.8 per cent, 53.2 per cent and 29.1 per cent over the volume-weighted average price per Soilbuild Reit unit respectively for the one-month, three-month, six-month and 12-month period up to and including Aug 31.

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In conjunction with the trust scheme, Soilbuild Reit entered into an agreement with related entities of Blackstone to dispose of its Australian assets.

On Thursday, unitholders representing about 262.9 million units or 83.67 per cent voted in favour of the disposal, while unitholders representing about 51.3 million units or 16.33 per cent voted against the disposal.

Trading in the units of Soilbuild Reit was halted before the market opened on Thursday. The counter closed 0.9 per cent or 0.5 Singapore cent higher at 53.5 cents on Wednesday. (see amendment note)

Amendment note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the Wednesday closing price of Soilbuild Reit.