Activist Sandpiper Takes Agellan Stake, Seeks Change at REIT
Sandpiper Group Discloses Agellan Stake, Holds Talks With REIT
(Bloomberg) -- Sandpiper Group has taken a stake in Agellan Commercial Real Estate Investment Trust and held talks with the company about its strategy and board composition.
Vancouver-based Sandpiper, led by Chief Executive Officer Samir Manji, owns 10 percent of Agellan’s outstanding shares, according to a statement Thursday. Talks between the investor and the company are ongoing.
“We believe Agellan trades at a material discount to the value of its underlying asset base,” Manji said in the statement. “We look forward to representing the interests of our fellow unitholders while working constructively with the board and management team to execute on our action plan.”
Agellan’s shares rose as much as 3.5 percent Friday and traded up 2.5 percent at C$11.80 in Toronto at 10:21 a.m., their highest price since February.
If the talks are unsuccessful, Sandpiper plans to take further action, including potentially calling a shareholder meeting to push for changes to Agellan’s board. Shares in the Toronto-based company were up 7.9 percent in Canadian trading this year prior to Sandpiper disclosing its stake. The company has a market valuation of about C$387 million ($317.5 million).
Sandpiper has the support of “several significant unitholders” including ELAD Canada Inc., according to the statement. ELAD Canada owns about 19 percent of Agellan, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Representatives for Agellan didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Agellan, which owns industrial, office and retail properties in the U.S. and Canada, is Manji’s second activist target since he founded Sandpiper. Canada’s largest industrial landlord, Granite Real Estate Investment Trust, agreed in June to add three directors nominated by FrontFour Capital Group and Sandpiper to its board.
To contact the reporters on this story: Elizabeth Fournier in New York at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Scott Deveau in New York at sdeveau2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Aaron Kirchfeld at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net, Ben Scent, Amy Thomson