SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's CapitaLand (SI:CATL) is buying the owner of a clutch of real estate investment trusts from state investor Temasek (TEM.UL) for about $4.4 billion(3.42 billion pounds), in a deal the developer said will create the largest diversified property group in Asia.
CapitaLand will buy the holding companies of the business of the Ascendas-Singbridge Group, which manages Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust (SI:AEMN), Ascendas India Trust (SI:AINT) and Ascendas Hospitality Trust (SI:ASHP), for cash and stock.
The deal will create a group with combined total assets under management of more than S$116 billion ($85.81 billion), CapitaLand and Ascendas-Singbridge said in a joint statement on Monday.
Ascendas-Singbridge is mainly a business space provider, including of logistics and business parks as well as data centres.
"Our complementary strengths position us strongly for growth amidst the changing real estate environment in Singapore and internationally," Ng Kee Choe, chairman of the board of CapitaLand, said in the statement.
The target companies have a combined enterprise value of S$10.9 billion.
Under the agreement, Temasek will effectively receive about S$6 billion, half in cash and half in new CapitaLand shares, which will be priced at S$3.50 a piece.
After the deal closes, Temasek's stake in CapitaLand will increase to about 51 percent from about 40.8 percent.