In a share market announcement this morning, SkyCity Entertainment Group said it will soon begin a sale process for SkyCity Adelaide in Australia as an individual asset, as well as looking more broadly at “any potential transaction involving the group”.
SkyCity has engaged UBS to manage the sales process for the Adelaide property, which includes significant hotel inventory and event space, with the investment bank to also work on potential transactions and on “evaluating other opportunities” for the broader business, alongside law firm Chapman Tripp.
Today’s announcement comes after SkyCity revealed in August that it had knocked back two unsolicited acquisition offers received in May.
One of the proposals came from Oaktree Capital as part of a special situations fund while the identity of the other company has not been made public.
The Oaktree Capital bid put forward an offer of NZ$0.70 a share while the second proposal offered $NZ0.75 per share.
With SkyCity’s shares trading between NZ$0.625 and NZ$0.50 per share in May, SkyCity said last month that the two takeover bids “did not adequately reflect the underlying value of the company, and that the conditions were problematic” and rejected the initial offers, while indicating to both parties it would consider updated offers. Today SkyCity said it has continued to engage with the businesses behind the May proposals.
Today SkyCity also confirmed it is expecting to enter into a binding agreement for the sale of The Grand Hotel in Auckland soon. The Grand Hotel is the second largest property in terms of room stock within SkyCity’s Auckland precinct. The convention centre also sits within that precinct.
