Simon Property Group, the world's largest real-estate investment trust (Reit), has put its stakes in Capital Shopping Centres (CSCG) and Capital & Counties (CAPC) up for sale, bringing to a close a long-standing but long-dormant takeover situation
Simon Property bought a 5 per cent stake in Liberty International in 2008, which it retained through the company's 2010 demerger into London developer CapCo and regional mall landlord CSC. But when, a few months later, Northern property baron John Whittaker announced a deal whereby he would sell CSC the Trafford Centre in Manchester in return for a fifth of the Reit's stock, Simon Property launched its own takeover bid at 425p per share.
It eventually fell through, after a spirited defence by CSC that infamously involved convincing other shareholders that its stock was actually worth 625p per share, and the Trafford Centre acquisition duly went ahead. Simon Property eventually satisfied its thirst for European retail assets this March by buying almost a third of Klépierre, a French retail Reit, from BNP Paribas for $2bn.
