Singaporean property giant CapitaLand is selling a 20 per cent stake in listed developer Australand for $426 million, sources said.
Investment bank Citigroup is handling the block trade, selling 115.66 million shares priced between $3.685 to $3.75 each.
Shares are being sold at a 1.7 per cent discount to the last traded price of $3.75 and at a 4.2 per cent discount to the average price over the last five days.
Australand is currently in a trading halt that will lift tomorrow morning.
CapitaLand has a 60 per cent interest in the Australian company, and signally earlier this year that it was looking to exit its holding.
The Australian flagged that investment bankers had been in talks with Capitaland last week about trading out of the stock after its shares rallied to almost $4 each.
The move looked likely yesterday when Australand issued an update about its earnings, saying it had written down four residential projects and five commercial and industrial projects by $65m, in what some yesterday said could be a cleansing statement before a block trade took place.
This month, CapitaLand said in a statement it was pleased with the favourable investor interest in the company and the prospects of the real estate sector in Australia.
"CapitaLand will continuously evaluate opportunities as they arise in the normal course of business," the Singaporean group said.
Last year, GPT bid for the bulk of Australand, causing its share price to gain 19c to $3.21 at the time. The company's stock has been trading around $4 in the past week but has dropped back to about $3.76.
On Tuesday Australand issued an update about its earnings, saying it had written down four residential projects and five commercial and industrial projects by $65 million, in what some yesterday said could be a cleansing statement before a block trade took place.