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Minerva has announced that it is close to finalizing the sale of an offices to rent London building that will bring in £40 million for the company. The property, located in the West End on Wigmore Street, is being purchased by an unknown buyer, to be announced at the close of the sale. Minerva is currently fighting a £85 million takeover from Nathan Kirsch, a South African investor, and the money would help shore up Minerva’s finances for the battle ahead.

Minerva is attempting to counter the hostile bid by showing that its property valuation has gone up by over 10 per cent since last June. The Wigmore property was originally valued at £39 million. Also, the Minerva counter shows that the company’s pro forma net asset value per share has gone up to 95p, which is double the offer price being put forward by Kirsch.

Minerva has seen a huge variation in its valuations and share price, which dropped to a low of 5.47p at the peak of the recession when the company had difficulty filling two developments located in London and its asset values took a nosedive.

However, the company’s chief executive Salamaan Hasan is confident that the company has come out of that phase. Hasan is also confident that the company will be able to beat out the takeover offer, due to the fact that it is soon to lease out over 1 million sq ft of space at the Walbrok and St. Botolphs. The company has also managed to refinance its debt and currently has no major financial obligations till 2012.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 11:33 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.