Aldar-Sorouh merger to be completed by June

Abu Dhabi’s two biggest property firms agreed on an all-share merger in January, creating a business with $13 billion in assets. The state-backed merger creates the second-largest listed property firm in the UAE and one of the biggest in the Middle East.

Both companies will hold an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to vote on the proposed merger on February 21, Aldar said in a filing to Abu Dhabi exchange on January 28. The property firms said the effective date for the merger was set for June 30 when new Aldar shares would be issued to Sorouh shareholders.

Under the merger proposal, Sorouh shareholders will get 1.288 Aldar shares for every share they own. The deal is subject to shareholder approval. Sorouh will be dissolved and delisted from the local bourse once the merger is completed and Sorouh shares would be suspended on June 23.

According to Abubaker Seddiq Al Khouri, the proposed chairman of the new business, Sorouh shareholders will get a premium of 16.9%. The Abu Dhabi government will own a 37% stake in the new firm and will also pay Sorouh $872 million in exchange for some infrastructure assets and units in its The Gate development.

The management of the combined group, to be named Aldar Sorouh Properties, has proposed a nine-member board that includes Al Khouri as chairman and Mubadala’s head of property and infrastructure unit Ali Eid AlMheiri as vice chairman. Mubadala will be the single largest shareholder in the combined entity with a holding of 19.15%.