Invista agrees takeover deal worth £39.7m from rival

Published on 19/06/2012 00:00

Invista, the real estate fund manager that demerged from HBOS in 2006, has agreed to a £39.7 million takeover by rival Palmer Capital.

The firm had previously accepted a £33.6m bid from Internos, but Weiss Asset Management, which owns 4.34 per cent of Invista, said that offer was “completely unacceptable” because it undervalued the company.

Unless a rival bid emerges, the deal is almost certain to go through because the fund manager’s two largest shareholders, Lloyds Banking Group and the Wellcome Trust, have agreed to back it.

Invista suffered a major setback in October 2010 when Lloyds, which bought HBOS the previous year, said it was terminating a number of fund management contracts representing around half of the firm’s £5.2 billion assets under management.

It embarked on a strategic review that concluded shareholders’ interests would be best served by selling assets and returning the proceeds to investors.

It returned £48m to shareholders last June, but has struggled to sell its interests in two “inherently complex” joint venture funds, and said the deal with Palmer Capital represents “fair value” for all its shareholders.