SEGRO board poised to accept £14bn Prologis takeover
East Midlands Gateway owner SEGRO looks ready to concede on a potential takeover by rival Prologis, after the board recommended shareholders accept a potential £14bn offer.
The firm, which also owns large industrial and logistics developments in Coventry and Northampton in the Midlands, turned down a £12.6bn offer from Prologis earlier this month as the US firm went public in a bid to get shareholders behind the deal.
According to a statement issued to the London Stock Exchange, SEGRO’s board has now “unanimously concluded” that the financial terms of Prologis’ latest bid are acceptable, and will recommend acceptance of a formal offer.
The revised proposal values SEGRO at £10.32 a share and consists of 0.0920 new Prologis shares for each SEGRO share, together with a partial cash alternative of up to £3.5 billion.
Prologis had until 5pm yesterday to announce a firm intention to make an offer or walk away, known as a “put up or shut up” deadline, but that timescale has now been extended until August 12 while an offer is prepared.
In a response issued after the stock exchange closed last night, Prologis said it welcomed the extra time, and would work constructively with the board at SEGRO to conclude a deal.
Should the deal go through, it will resolve a long running planning dispute over land near East Midlands Airport, over which the pair have been at loggerheads for the past two years.
SEGRO is waiting on MCHLG over a phase two extension to the East Midlands Gateway near Kegworth, spanning 3.2m sq ft of industrial logistics space, and set to form part of the East Midlands Freeport enterprise zone.
Prologis has plans of its own for a portion of the site, and submitted a joint application with East Midlands Airport owners MAG in 2024, to which SEGRO lodged an objection on the grounds that it was a “piecemeal” scheme, which was incompatible with the wider freeport development.
SEGRO, which has assets of around 120m sq ft of industrial, logistics and data centre space across Europe, launched a joint venture earlier this month, which included three Midlands sites at at Radlett, Coventry and Northampton.
