US-based EPN Investment Management's takeover bid for the $1.3 billion EDT Retail Trust, formerly known as Macquarie DDT Trust, has been closed with the firm now owning 96.4 per cent of the units.
The closure of the bid ends a controversial takeover process, as unit holders, including Indus Capital and Artis Capital, were trying to get a better price for their investments through a wind-up of the fund.
The fund comprised US shopping centres and because the market for commercial real estate in the US had been improving unit holders felt they would be better off selling the assets in the market.
EPN raised its bid in May this year from 7.8 cents to 9 cents a unit, after an independent expert ruled that the initial offer was not fair, not reasonable and not in the best interest of unit holders.
But unit holders argued that a new price still did not reflect the value of the assets.
EPN, however, held a majority stake in the trust, and voted against the resolution to wind up the trust earlier this month, leaving the other investors in the fund little choice but to offer their units.
"We had almost 15 per cent of EDT. However, we sold our shares in the take-over," Orbis Australia portfolio manager Simon Marais told InvestorDaily.
"Not a great price, but if we stayed in, we would have held more than 50 per cent of the free float and so really had no choice in the end but to sell our shares," he said.
