CIC Australia has received approval from its lender St George Bank to change the control of the company to Peet Limited.
Last month Peet made a $76 million takeover for the Canberra-based residential property developer.
Yesterday CIC said in a statement that St George Bank has confirmed that any such change of control of CIC will not constitute an event of default under any of CIC’s financing facilities and the consent is unconditional in respect of all of the financing facilities entered into by CIC.
Although St George Bank said its consent in respect of the multi option facility is conditional on that facility being repaid by 30 September 2013, which is 10 months earlier than the current maturity date of that facility.
Earlier last month CIC’s major shareholder, corporate raiders Guiness Peat Group (GPG) which has a 73% interest in the Canberra-based developer, announced it had sold a 19.9% stake to Peet and said it intends to accept the $76 million takeover bid.
The sale of CIC Australia is a result of GPG’s stated strategy to capitalise its investments. In February this year, the corporate raiders offloaded their substantial interest in developer AVJennings, worth $8.25 million to institutional investors, after years of agitating the board.
CIC has a land bank of 7,333 lots and currently 4,955 lots are for sale across seven projects worth $1.5 billion and has already exchanged contracts for 500 dwellings worth $148 million. Its largest development, the 5,900-lot Googong NSW is being developed with Mirvac.
The transaction will also provide Peet diversification into the new markets of ACT, SA and NT, increasing Peet’s land bank to more than 53,000 lots with a gross development value of more than $10 billion.
Property Review