"Their services are complementary to ours," Equis president and CEO Michael Silver tells GlobeSt.com. "We had dots all over the globe, but United has more." Silver adds that the firm has the opportunity to raise its value in United's eyes through performance incentives that could raise the total buy to $US 132 million.
United Group officials say the acquisition was the next step in the global expansion of its services operations and created an end-to-end corporate real-estate business servicing tenants and owner/occupiers in the growing US market.
United will fund the acquisition--which is expected to close within a month--through a mixture of debt and equity, which will be raised through an institutional placement of $A125 million. Some $A121 million of that is fully underwritten. Leupen will take up his pro-rata share of placement of $A4 million, subject to shareholder approval.
A share purchase plan will be offered, under which eligible United Group shareholders are each entitled to subscribe to shares up to the value of $5,000. Equis has annual revenue of more than $US 95 million per annum and has operations in India, China, Hungary and Mexico.
The existing senior management will continue to run Equis' team of 400 staff. Leupen says the acquisition was its third in property services and was consistent with its long-term growth strategy. "Equis gives United an expanded international platform, allowing us to offer high-end integrated CRE services to multinational clients, who are demanding global solutions," he says. "We intend to enhance Equis services with those we currently offer."
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