UK Commercial Property needs to reconsider Tritax Big Box deal

In the 25-plus years I have been involved with the management of FTSE 250-listed investment trust TR Property (TRY), we have supported boards on numerous occasions as corporate actions unfolded. Typically, these engagements occur discreetly and yield outcomes which we believe are in the interests of shareholders.

But the proposed all-share takeover of UK Commercial Property (UKCM) by Tritax Big Box (BBOX) leads me to break with convention to publicly highlight my reservations about the deal. I am in good company: UKCM’s experienced chairman, Peter Pereira Gray, is emphatically objecting to the merger saying that he believes that ‘other parties would have come forward had there been a more open and comprehensive sales process’.

Pereira Gray continued: ‘This could have led to… a potentially improved proposal for UKCM.’