Shaftesbury and Capco announce merger

Real estate giants Shaftesbury and Capital & Counties Properties have announced their agreement on an all-share merger to form a combined group, called Shaftesbury Capital PLC.

The merger will bring together the two real estate companies, located throughout London's West End including Covent Garden, Carnaby, Chinatown and Soho, to create a leading mixed-use central London real estate investment trust. 

Valued at approximately £5 billion, the combined group's portfolio will comprise of around 670 predominantly freehold buildings, with roughly 2.9 million square feet of lettable space across 2,000 commercial and residential units.

The firms have said the merger will be "implemented by way of a scheme of arrangement of Shaftesbury, which together with the existing Capco shareholding, will result in Capco owning 100% of the issued share capital of Shaftesbury on completion".

This means Shaftesbury shareholders (other than the holders of the existing Capco stake in the business) will own 53% of the combined group and Capco shareholders will own 47%. Capco already holds nearly 97 million Shaftesbury shares, representing around 25.2% of its issued share capital.

The firms have also said the merger "will have a strong balance sheet, improved trading liquidity and an enhanced profile in the capital markets, providing an opportunity to improve its equity rating over time".

The new firm will be led by Jonathan Nicholls as Non-Executive chairman and Ian Hawksworth as CEO. Situl Jobanputra will be the CFO and Chris Ward will be COO.

An executive committee will be responsible for the day-to-day management comprising of the CEO, CFO and COO. They’ll be joined by three others including Capco’s Michelle McGrath,  responsible for the Covent Garden portfolio and Shaftesbury’s assets in Seven Dials, Opera Quarter and Coliseum.

After 36 years at Shaftesbury, including 11 years as CEO, Brian Bickell will retire on completion.