SHAREHOLDERS of Hong Kong-listed ESR Cayman have given the nod to its proposed acquisition of ARA Asset Management, a move that will create the largest real asset manager in the Asia-Pacific, Singapore Exchange-listed ESR-Reit said in a filing on Wednesday (Nov 3) after market close.

The acquisition paves the way for a merger of the real estate investment trust (Reit) and ARA Logos Logistics Trust, whose respective sponsors are ESR Cayman and ARA Asset Management.

At an extraordinary general meeting on Wednesday (Nov 3), 91.81 per cent of votes cast were in favour of the proposed acquisition.

Three non-executive directors were elected, each receiving more than 88 per cent of votes cast, and will be on the board after the acquisition is completed. They are John Lim Hwee Chiang, Justin Chiu Kwok Hung and Rajeev Kannan.

ESR Cayman chairman Jeffrey Perlman said the enlarged group "is very well positioned to capture the largest secular trends including the continued rise of e-commerce, an accelerating digital transformation and the financialisation of real estate".

The transaction is expected to close by end-2021 or the first quarter of 2022, subject to customary closing conditions such as regulatory approvals. It creates the third largest listed real estate investment manager globally, with a combined US$131 billion of assets under management.

GET BT IN YOUR INBOX DAILY

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign UpVIEW ALL

Last month, ESR Cayman announced the proposed merger of ESR-Reit and ARA Logos to form ESR-Logos Reit - for which one of the conditions is the merger of ESR Cayman and ARA Asset Management. The merged Reit would have total assets of S$5.4 billion.

ESR-Reit units closed unchanged at S$0.48; ARA Logos units closed up S$0.02 ot 2.25 per cent at S$0.91 on Wednesday (Nov 3) before the news.