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PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA-With 70% of eligible shares voted, more than 98% of the votes favored locally based Kramont Realty Trust's merger into CWAR OP Merger Sub III Trust, an affiliate of Melbourne, Australia-based Centro Properties Ltd. Kramont and Centro anticipate closing the deal the week of April 18.

Under the terms, Centro will pay approximately $610 million in cash, or about $23.50 per common share of KRT common stock, which trades on the NYSE. KRT shares opened at $23.47 a share prior to the shareholders' vote at 10 am on April 14 and hovered at the $23.50 range following the vote. The 52-week high of $23.65 a share occurred on Dec. 21, 2004 following the initial announcement of the planned merger. The 52-week low, $14.40 per share, occurred on May 10, 2004.

On March 4, in anticipation of a vote favoring the merger, Kramont announced a procedure and timing for conversion of its Series B-1 preferred shares to common shares. Holders who properly converted were entitled to receive $33.17 per preferred share in cash and without interest at the effective time of the merger versus $25 per share if they failed to convert.

Kramont, which specializes in neighborhood and community shopping centers, owns, operates, manages and has under development 93 properties encompassing nearly 12.5 million sf over 16 states. Approximately 80% of its assets are anchored by grocery, drug or value retail entities.

This will be Centro's third and largest US acquisition since forming Santa Monica, CA-based Centro Watt America REIT in October 2003. Since then, under separate entities, it acquired 14 shopping centers in California aggregating 3.1 million for $488 million and three power centers in the Atlanta area, aggregating 691,000 sf for just over $109 million. "The size of the US property market offers a broad range of retail property investment opportunities and combined with low interest rates, strong returns and low transactional costs, the US is a very attractive investment environment," said Andrew Scott, Centro's CEO, in a statement on April 13.

Under the Kramont merger agreement, Centro will retain 12 senior officers, including Louis P. Meshon Sr., president and CEO, and an additional 135 employees. When the agreement was first announced on Dec. 20, 2004, Meshon said Centro was a buyer with the ability to "fund the forward operations of the company, including its obligations into the future."

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GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Kramont Shareholders Okay $610M Sale to Centro

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