- Market largely unremarkable with one major acquisition by Irongate
- Cromwell added two new non-executive directors with extensive experience in Asia
- Vitalharvest paused trading and announced an offer from Macquarie Agricultural Fund
It’s been a reasonably normal week for the market so far with the usual change of directors interest notices, changes in substantial holding, and daily buy-back notices.
The market was punctuated by occasional news of acquisitions, The Property Tribune reported on the Irongate (ASX: IAP) acquisition of a $25M dollar industrial property in Pinkenba, Queensland, about 30 minutes east of Brisbane city.
Earlier in the week Cromwell also announced its board renewal, along with two new independent non-executive directors: Mr Rob Blain, formerly chief executive of CBRE Asia-Pacific, and Mr Ooi Eng Peng, who previously served in various c-suite roles for Lendlease, rising to Asia CEO for Lendlease Investment Management and Retail from 2006 to 2010.
Annual General Meetings were also announced for Scentre Group (8 April 2021), and GPT Group (13 May 2021).
Centuria also announced the results for its general meeting, with a 99.9% majority of voters casting ballots in favour of the “ratification of prior issue of securities pursuant to the institutional placement”.
Finbar and PEET both posted their Euroz Hartleys Conference Presentations to market, restating their positive growth figures from half-yearly results.
Rural Funds Group also posted its half-yearly results, with profits of $59M, before tax, buoying the company’s heavy investment into macadamia orchards.
Vitalharvest had big news this week, announcing the ending of what initially looked like a firm offer from Roc Private Equity Limited for a complete takeover of the company at $1.08 per unit. Macquarie matched that offer today, so Vitalharvest was put in a trading halt.
Auckland Real Estate (ASX: AKL) also showed its confidence in the commercial market, not only acquiring $89M in property in the heart of Auckland’s CBD but “fusing” the three buildings together to create what they called the “Fusion Project”.
Questus also announced an offer to buy-back unmarketable parcels of shares. This follows multiple extensions on a voluntary suspension that dates back to 2019.
