The Wellcome Trust is set to buy Urban&Civic after it offered a £506m bid for the property developer.
Urban&Civic shareholders must back the offer of 345p for each share in the business.
The property developer specialises in large regeneration projects that use brownfield sites to provide serviced plots to housebuilders.
Wellcome is an independent foundation and all of its work is funded from an investment portfolio valued at £26.8bn, as of 30 September 2019. An in-house team of investment professionals manage Wellcome’s portfolio.
The medical research charity will pay in cash, rather than shares.
'Fully aligned with our existing strategy of investing in businesses over the long term'
The acquisition will be affected by a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement, and the scheme must be approved by 75% of scheme shareholders.
Wellcome intends that the Urban&Civic Group will continue to pursue its existing pipeline of development opportunities and continue to invest in new opportunities as they arise. Wellcome does not intend to alter the Urban&Civic Group’s strategy.
Peter Pereira Gray, managing partner and chief executive of the investment division of Wellcome, said: “We are very pleased to announce this recommended offer, which is fully aligned with our existing strategy of investing in businesses over the long term. The offer by Wellcome for Urban&Civic represents a compelling value proposition for Urban&Civic’s shareholders at an attractive and certain value in cash today, reflecting the high quality of the business, its people and its future prospects.
“We know the Urban&Civic business and its experienced management team from our recent joint venture together. We welcome Urban&Civic’s management and employees to Wellcome and look forward to working with them to invest in and develop the business further. We believe that the two groups’ complementary strengths will create a business well-equipped to deliver Urban&Civic’s long-term potential.”
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