Unit holders of CapitaLand Mall Trust (CMT) and CapitaLand Commercial Trust (CCT) voted "resoundingly" yesterday in favour of the proposed merger to form a new real estate investment trust (Reit).
While both sets of investors were in favour of the move, CCT unit holders had lower percentage approvals than those from CMT.
The managers said more than 3,000 unit holders voted by proxy at CMT's extraordinary general meeting (EGM) and CCT's EGM and trust scheme meeting.
All five resolutions at the three meetings were passed and well supported.
At CMT's EGM, 98.89 per cent of the votes were in favour of the proposed merger by way of the trust scheme, while 98.88 per cent backed the issuance of new CMT units as part of the scheme consideration for the merger.
Pyramex Investments, Albert Complex, Premier Healthcare Services International, CMT Management and their associates abstained from voting.
The managers said that for "purposes of good corporate governance", CapitaLand executives Jason Leow and Jonathan Yap also abstained from voting, given their positions in the groups.
At CCT's trust scheme meeting, the resolution on the merger by way of the trust scheme received 90.31 per cent approval by headcount, representing 98.23 per cent in value of the total number of CCT units held by unit holders who voted.
The CCT manager, the CMT manager's concert parties as well as the common substantial unit holders of CMT and CCT abstained from voting.
Under the trust scheme, CMT will acquire all the units in CCT held by CCT unit holders in exchange for a combination of new units in CMT and cash. The consideration for each CCT unit under the trust scheme comprises 0.72 new CMT units and $0.259 in cash.
The merged entity is expected to be one of the largest Reits in the Asia-Pacific and the largest in Singapore by market capitalisation ($12.7 billion) and total portfolio property value ($22.4 billion).
CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, as it will be called, will have a diversified portfolio of 24 strategically located and high-quality retail, office and integrated developments in Singapore and overseas, said the managers.
The merger is expected to become effective on Oct 21. CCT's last day of trading is expected to be on Oct 16.
THE BUSINESS TIMES
