King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) has acted as the Australian legal adviser to Abacus Property Group (ASX:ABP) in connection with its proposed de-stapling of Abacus Property Group’s Self Storage business from its Commercial Business to establish a separate listed stapled group, Abacus Storage King.
On completion, Abacus Storage King will own, operate and manage the Storage King operating platform and own a $3.1 billion investment portfolio. Abacus Group will continue to own and manage its eastern seaboard focused $2.4 billion commercial portfolio and will also externally manage Abacus Storage King.
As part of the proposal, Abacus Storage King is also seeking to raise approximately $225 million via a pro rata securityholder offer to Abacus Property Group securityholders. The transaction is set to be one of the largest Initial Public Offerings (IPO) so far this year in what has been a challenging period for equity capital markets.
The KWM team was led by Practice Leader, Mergers & Acquisitions, David Eliakim and Partner, Amanda Isouard with support from Senior Associates, Lee-Anne Yeo, Yiwen Chen and Stacey Stellatos and Solicitors, Amy Xi, Jaspreet Nagra, Chris Chan, Wendy Yuan and Isobel O’Malley, with specialist cross practice support from a large number of lawyers.
Commenting on the deal, Practice Leader, Mergers & Acquisitions David Eliakim said:
“We’re proud to have assisted Abacus Property Group on a significant REIT demerger and one which we suspect will be closely looked at by other diversified REITs seeking to maximise value for their securityholders.”
Further commenting on the deal, Partner, Amanda Isouard said:
“The transaction shows that equity capital markets remain open for attractive opportunities such as self-storage, which is a clear growth sector in this country and worldwide.”
If the proposal is approved, the Abacus Storage King ASX listing and de-stapling implementation are expected to occur in early August 2023.
