Abacus Property Group has not considered delisting from the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) as an option.

"If you want to delist Abacus, you would have to do a full takeover offer for Abacus Property Group, and that would be a big transaction," Abacus funds management director Tom Hardwick told InvestorDaily.

"There is no talk of privatising. It is not even something that has been contemplated or discussed," he said.

South African businessman Nathan Kirsh in April this year took a 27.4 per cent interest in the property group through an affiliated entity, Calculator Australia.
 
The transactions sparked speculation about a full takeover of Abacus, but Hardwick said Kirsh is purely a strategic investor.

Although the stake does give Kirsh the right to a seat on the board, he has not indicated plans for becoming a director. 

Abacus itself has been looking into merger and acquisition (M&A) possibilities with other REITs, but has not found any compelling opportunities so far.

"I would think that most REITs would have done the same exercise," Hardwick said.

"I think everyone has a few [companies] that they keep an eye on, but there is a difference between: 'it would be nice to do a transaction' and 'does it make sense to do a transaction?'"

Hardwick said the general expectation in the sector is that M&A activity will pick up over the next 12 months because many trusts diminished in size during the financial crisis.

But at the moment they are still working on improving their financial position or waiting for lending conditions to improve, he said.

"The problems [in the sector] are being solved bit by bit, so we're probably getting closer to [acquisitions]. But are we there today? I don't think so."