court clears way for $8.7bn centro sale

Well disappointed no divi.
Not overly susprised though.
Lets hope they get on with the job now and return it to a boring reit paying good divis sooner than later & the NTA gets a boost to closer to 45c for next update.

Cheers
Hotlegs

Court clears way for $8.7bn Centro sale
Florence Chong From: The Australian June 23, 2011 12:00AM

THE path is now clear for Centro Properties Group (CNP) to sell its US assets to the private equity giant Blackstone Group next week for $US9.4 billion ($8.7bn), following a victory in the Federal Court.

Centro said yesterday it expected to close the deal by next Thursday.

Blackstone beat two other bidders to buy the assets in February.

In a statement yesterday Centro said the Federal Court had dismissed an action by CNP shareholder Smartec Capital.

Smartec had challenged a ruling from the ASX which found Centro did not require shareholders' approval to sell the US assets to Blackstone Real Estate.

However, the Federal Court dismissed its proceedings and ordered Smartec to pay all of Centro's costs. Smartec is owned by Asian interests and is a member of the CNP Shareholders Association.

A source close to Smartec told The Australian the investor would not make further attempts to stop the sale.

"There is nothing further by way of court proceedings that it can take as a result of the latest court decision," said the source.

Smartec, which owned 0.5 per cent of CNP units, initiated its second court action against Centro last week, seeking to force Centro to seek the approval of securityholders for the sale.

Earlier this year it made an application to the NSW Supreme Court, which failed, and was ordered to pay half of Centro's costs.

It has been suggested that Smartec's action amounted to greenmailing to obtain a benefit for itself -- a suggestion rejected by Smartec. In its statement, Centro said that the two legal actions had distracted the management from the task of restructuring the group.

The group is moving to merge CNP with listed sister trust Centro Retail Trust to create what analysts said would be the third-largest pure Australian retail trust on the ASX.

The restructuring plan could be announced by late August.