People are sort of expecting this to happen but this was simply too sudden! Given that the Ascendas-Singbridge acquisition just completed a few days ago?! Anyway, I am not sure why they are calling it a combination instead of a merger but I guess it is because they already owned it?

What is Happening?

Ascott REIT shareholders:
Nothing to get too excited about.

Ascendas Hospitality Trust shareholders:
Ascott REIT will be buying over your shares! This will comes in the form of $0.0543 cash/dividends + 0.7942 of new Ascott REIT-BT shares. Value unlocked? It really depends on how one looks at it.

Let's look back at one of our posts where I blogged about the open letter by Quarz Capital in our Portfolio - April 2019 and decided to buy more Ascott REIT.

As you can see, the offer is pretty similar to what Quarz Capital proposed - a mixture of cash (lesser) and Ascott REIT share (more) offer at...