The news: Charter Hall Retail REIT and Hostplus will initiate the compulsory acquisition of listed pub owner Hotel Property Investments (HPI) after increasing their aggregate holding in the company to more than 90%.
The numbers: Property investor Charter Hall Retail said it expects the compulsory acquisition of all the remaining HPI shares to take six weeks.
Charter Hall Retail shares were up 3.4% to $3.50 at 2:50pm AEDT.
The context: Together with super fund Hostplus, Charter Hall Retail has increased its ownership of HPI from 20% in September to over 90% and will now move towards 100% ownership.
After initially urging shareholders to reject Charter Hall Retail and Hostplus’ $3.85-per-share takeover offer, HPI’s directors later recommended they accept the bid after its suitors gained a majority holding.
HPI’s portfolio includes nearly 60 pubs, most of which are on long leases to Queensland Venue Company, a joint venture between Coles Group and Australian Venue Co.