CANADIAN Brookfield Makes $1.5 Billion Bid for Belgium’s Largest REIT

Jack Sidders, Bloomberg News

The evening sun sets above the rooftops of residential and commercial buildings in the Northern Quarter business district of Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, May 22, 2017. European Union ministers finalized their Brexit negotiating position a day after the U.K. threatened to quit talks on its departure unless the bloc drops its demands for a divorce payment as high as 100 billion euros ($112 billion). Photographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- A fund managed by Brookfield Asset Management Inc. has offered 47.50 euros a share to buy Befimmo SA, Belgium’s largest real estate investment trust.

The offer, which is backed by the company’s management and board of directors, values the company at about 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion). 

RE Invest Belgium SA, an entity controlled by one of Brookfield’s real estate private funds, has secured the baking of shareholders with a 15.2% stake in the company, according to a statement Friday. The bid represents a 29.3% premium Befimmo’s share price over the past year but a 21% discount to its net assets at the end of 2021. 

“We believe this transaction represents the best path forward for our company to benefit from the strategic partnership of one of the world’s most experienced real estate investors as we navigate the evolving environment for office real estate,’ said Jean-Philip Vroninks, chief executive officer of Befimmo. 

Any deal will be subject to Brookfield securing more than half of shareholders’ votes, as well as regulatory approval. Closing of the takeover is expected in the third quarter, according to Brookfield

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