Globalworth says bid from investor group significantly undervalues company

(Reuters) -London-listed Globalworth Real Estate Investments said on Monday a joint bid from its top shareholders significantly undervalues the company at around $1.9 billion.

The investors, CPI Property Group SA and Aroundtown SA, already own 51.5% of Globalworth, a real estate investment company that operates mainly in the office sector in Poland and Romania.

The Bucharest-based company said the proposed offer price of 7 euros per Globalworth share from the consortium represented a discount of more than 27% to its six-month volume-weighted average price as of February 2020, and asked shareholders not to take action on the offer.

Johannesburg-listed Growthpoint, Globalworth's second-largest shareholder with a 29.5% stake, said it agreed with the AIM-listed company's assessment.

Shares of Globalworth were trading at 7.4 euros, marginally higher than the bid price, by 0830 GMT.

CPI and Aroundtown made their bid on April 14, and said a day later the consortium had not yet decided on increasing the offer. The two investors would make their bid contingent on tenders from shareholders owning 90% of Globalworth's equity.

The office real estate sector has been struggling due to coronavirus-led restrictions and uncertainty about return-to-work plans, which has also led to a fall in their share prices.

Both CPI and Aroundtown did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for a comment.

(Reporting by Vishwadha Chander in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi and Uttaresh.V)