Compson JV Not Dropping Out of Race

KENNER, LA-The Boca Raton, FL-based Compson Holding Corp. says it's not abandoning its hot pursuit of the 30-property portfolio of Sizeler Property Investors Inc. But, the deal is shaping up as a cat-and-mouse game with Sizeler's rejection yesterday of Compson's bid.

"We definitely aren't dropping it. We're evaluating what we can do at this point barring the shareholders' vote," Compson president Michael Comparato tells GlobeSt.com, adding that the rejected bid was underwritten by Stamford, CT-based UBS Real Estate Investments. "It's very important that the shareholders know that UBS was involved in this deal as an equity partner."

The locally based Sizeler has yet to set a date for shareholders to vote on a $324-million merger with Toronto-based Revenue Properties Co. Ltd. and its majority owner, Morguard Corp. If the shareholders' reject the merger, then Sizeler's board "has the ability to pick up the phone so we can have a meaningful dialogue," Comparato stresses.

Sizeler presented several reasons for the rejection. It maintained the real estate-only offer would have resulted in less than the quoted $15.60 per share due, in part, to wind-down and liquidation expenses that would be incurred from the deal.Comparato can't go into details about the Compson offer. What he could say is it included a reserve for wind-down and miscellaneous expenses.

Comparato says the primary problem is Sizeler hasn't disclosed enough for the Compson JV to ante up its offer. "We can keep guessing. We are trying to figure out how to make this work, but when you try to buy something from a seller who can't tell you anything, it's not easy," he says. "If we're off by 100% or 500%, they can't tell us. We're stuck with guessing. We could be off by 10 cents a share. We could be off by 75 cents a share. The only people who know are Sizeler and they're not telling us because of the merger."