While these are the actions of an activist investor, QCM is different from other activist investors. The usual modus operandi of activist investors, such as Elliott Capital globally, Argyle Street Management (ASM) in Asia-Pacific and Sandon Capital Investments in Australia, is to take a significant stake in a poorly run company and lobby for changes to unlock value, or take a substantial stake in a company to “clean up” issues such as debt.
SINGAPORE (Dec 2): In April this year, following overwhelming votes in an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) in favour of resolutions by CapitaLand’s independent shareholders to acquire Ascendas-Singbridge (ASB), Quarz Capital Management (QCM) wrote an open letter to Ascendas Hospitality Trust (A-HTrust) proposing that Ascott Residence Trust (Ascott REIT) acquire A-HTrust in a cash and unit transaction. At the time, CapitaLand had issued a statement saying that the merger with ASB was subject to conditions precedent being fulfilled. However, CapitaLand added that it was aware of the overlapping mandates of the two trusts. Ascott REIT and A-HTrust eventually announced a merger in July, which will be completed by year-end.
On Nov 11, QCM wrote an open letter to ESR Cayman, the sponsor of Sabana Shari’ah Compliant Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust, proposing that ESR-REIT merge with Sabana REIT. QCM proposed that the merger be done through a cash and unit transaction in which 0.92 unit of ESR-REIT and $0.067 in cash be exchanged for one unit of Sabana REIT for a total value of 54.5 cents a unit.
