DTZ sold to UGL in pre-pack administration
DTZ has this morning announced that Australian property services firm UGL has agreed to acquire the company, in a deal that will see shareholders wiped out.
The company was placed into pre-pack administration immediately prior to UGL’s takeover. UGL is paying £77.5m, adjusted for cash, which The Times points out is less than DTZ’s debt of £106m. No value was therefore placed on the share capital of DTZ Holdings, the holding company, leaving shareholders with nothing – including majority shareholder Saint Georges Participations. The use of the pre-pack administration process enabled the deal to go through without the need for a shareholder vote (which SGP could have vetoed).
UGL, which has bought all the trading operations of DTZ Holdings, says none of the subsidiaries is being placed into administration and that they will continue to trade normally. “No company in the DTZ group other than Holdings has entered any form of insolvency process,” it added. UGL is funding the deal with new debt facilities.
The Australian group said the acquisition was a key step on its “journey as the emerging leader in global property services”. It noted that the deal would give the group with a very strong market position in Asia “and an enhanced strategic platform across the high growth Asian markets, particularly China, India and Singapore”.
