St Laurence offer extended

St Laurence Group has extended its 9% convertible note offer for another two months.

Sunday, December 21st 2003, 11:25PM
An associated company, St Laurence Property & Finance Ltd, is planning to merge, on a voluntary basis 13 property syndicates by offering unitholders convertible notes at a 10% premium.

Of the $140 million worth of convertible notes on offer, $97 million are being offered to these investors while $43 million would be offered to the public.

St Laurence managing director Kevin Podmore says that the offer had exceeded expectations to date.

He says the company has received an average acceptance rate of 73% for each syndicate company, excluding the Mt Wellington and Capital Office syndicates where the Takeovers Code applies, and the St Laurence 439 Syndicate where its property is subject to a purchase offer.

"The St Laurence Property & Finance investment statement projections were based on a 51% acceptance rate and we have easily surpassed that level."

The offer has now been extended to close on February 19.

Podmore says the extension was made because advisers had requested more time to inform their clients about the offer and its benefits.

"Therefore, despite the success of the offer, we made the decision to extend the closing date which for most syndicate companies was today. We are confident that by extending the time period, we will achieve an even greater acceptance rate."

Meanwhile in a related matter St Laurence has received an offer to buy the building the Queen Street, Auckland building in its St Laurence 439 syndicate.

Originally Urbus made an unsolicited offer for the building, however St Laurence decided to run an off market tender process to establish a price.

As a result of this tender a higher price was achieved and a conditional sale has been made.

Podmore says that investors in that syndicate have been informed of the sale process, and have been given the opportunity to withdraw their acceptance of the St Laurence Property & Finance offer, should they choose to do so.

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