SEGRO REJECTS SECOND PROLOGIS TAKEOVER BID WORTH £13.5BN

Segro has rejected a second takeover bid from Prologis, the US property company, according to the FTSE 100 firm. Prologis' offer valued Segro at £13.5bn, comprising 0.0890 Prologis shares per Segro share plus £2.7bn in cash. The bid represented a 9.7 per cent premium on Segro's prevailing share price. This rejection marks the second occasion on which Segro has turned down an approach from Prologis.

Prologis disputed Segro's assertion that it was undervalued, stating that Segro's own valuation was "unrealistic" owing to unquantified risks in its development projects. The US firm noted that Segro shareholders would have been 36.5 per cent better off had the company accepted a Prologis offer from March 2024. Prologis indicated it was considering establishing a secondary listing of its shares on the London Stock Exchange. Central to the disagreement is the relative value of the two companies' data centre estates, with each party claiming superiority over the other's portfolio.

Segro's chief executive, David Sleath, told investors that accepting Prologis' proposal would swap full ownership of Segro's data centre pipeline for a "materially lower shareholding in a different, more US-focused portfolio". Prologis countered that its data centre platform was "more experienced, larger and better-capitalised". Analysts at investment firm Stifel predicted the two parties could eventually settle on an offer of 1,110p per share. Prologis stated it would pursue the acquisition "aggressively".