Songbird Estates rejects Qatar bid: Investors way off with Canary Wharf proposal
Songbird Estates, the majority shareholder of London’s Canary Wharf, values itself at over 25 per cent more than the recently rejected £2.2bn takeover bid from the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Brookfield Property Partners.
Songbird – which owns 69 per cent of Canary Wharf Group, the owner of the east London-based financial district—rebuffed the takeover proposal on Friday, saying it “materially undervalued” the group. The property firm’s investment portfolio is worth £6.3bn.
The bid valued Songbird at 295p a share. Morning Wire has learnt that the company would consider a deal of upwards of 400p a share, somewhere between the group’s net asset value per share of 319p – as published in its interim results in September – and a two-year forecast by financial analysts valuing it at 432p a share.
The takeover push represents an equal joint-venture investment between the state-run QIA and the US-based commercial real estate investor Brookfield Property Partners. QIA already owns 28.6 per cent of Songbird and, similarly, Brookfield has a 22 per cent stake in Canary Wharf Group.
Shares in Songbird dropped by 2.8 per cent to 311p following the rejection.
QIA and Songbird declined to comment when contacted by Morning Wire.