Australian pub owner rebuffs takeover bid

Caledonia, which is already ALE's largest individual shareholder with a 25.84% stake, is willing to buy all outstanding shares at A$3.95 apiece, according to a regulatory filing. The ALE board said it believed accepting the offer was not in the interests of shareholders and that Caledonia would not pursue the matter further.

Caledonia describes itself an investment manager responsible for private and institutional assets within a single long-short equity strategy. It was set up in 1992 to manage the investment portfolio of the Darling family and later the Nelson and Vicars families. Since 1998 it has served a wider pool of clients and currently has about $3.1 billion under management.

ALE's stock jumped 9.1% to reach A$3.94 on October 15 subsequent to news of the offer being made public. It is up 17.2% so far this year while the ASX 200 Index has fallen by 3.35%.

The company owns 86 freehold properties, all of which are leased to pub operator ALH, which is 75%-owned by Woolworths. Revenue came to A$55.2 million for the 12 months ended June 2015, up 1.05% year-on-year, while pre-tax profit fell 6.97% to A$29.1 million. Net profit rose by 267% to A$99.4 million, largely due to an increase in the fair value increment to ALE's properties.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Real estate
• Buyouts
• buyout
• Australia
• Real estate