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Brookfield Asset Management, North America's biggest publicly traded property manager, agreed to buy Multiplex Group for A$4.2 billion ($4.7 billion), the second takeover of an Australian real estate company in two weeks.
The cash bid values Multiplex, builder of London's Wembley Stadium, at A$5.05 a share, 22 per cent more than the stock was trading at before a takeover approach was announced. The offer was supported by the founding Roberts family, holders of a 25.6 per cent stake, Multiplex said.
The purchase will raise Toronto-based Brookfield's property portfolio by US$7 billion ($9.3 billion) to US$33 billion, adding buildings in Australia's four largest cities, and give it a construction business spanning Australia, Britain and the Middle East.
Lawsuits and regulatory probes into Wembley have marred Multiplex's three years as a listed company.
"Multiplex has had some very well-publicised problems, which have put a lid on the share price, and Brookfield has obviously seen an opportunity," said John Snowden, at Colonial First State in Sydney.
The takeover follows Morgan Stanley agreeing on May 31 to buy Investa Property Group, Australia's biggest office owner, for A$4.7 billion, the country's largest foreign takeover of a property company.
Multiplex stock rose a cent to A$5.01.
More than 60 per cent of Multiplex's construction business is in Australia and New Zealand, 30 per cent is in the Middle East and 8 per cent is in the United Kingdom. Multiplex is Brookfield's first purchase in Australia. In April, Brookfield completed the US$1.63 billion cash acquisition of Longview Fibre, making it one of the five largest owners of private timberlands in North America.
The Roberts family listed Multiplex on the Australian Stock Exchange in December 2003, raising A$901 million in the share sale. The company was founded by John Roberts in 1962 in Perth. Roberts stepped down as executive chairman in 2005 after the Wembley losses. He died in June of last year.
-BLOOMBERG
