Shares in Abacus Storage King (ASX: ASK) have charged more than 10% higher in early trade on Wednesday, and I've got a pretty good idea why.
Abacus is a player in the booming self-storage industry in Australia and has grown to be worth $1.83 billion after listing on the ASX in August 2023.
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Takeover in the wings
One of the company's key competitors, and a shareholder in Abacus itself, is National Storage REIT (ASX: NSR), which on Wednesday asked that its shares be placed in a trading halt.
NSR, as reported by The Australian, is currently fielding a potential takeover offer purportedly from Brookfield and GIC, and has asked that its shares be suspended while negotiations continue.
It's my bet that traders are looking at the potential NSR deal and wondering whether Abacus might be wrapped into a larger play either now or down the track.
Abacus in predators' rights
Abacus has this year been itself the target of a protracted takeover attempt by Ki Corporation and US-listed firm Public Storage (NYSE: PSA), with the $1.47 per security bid rejected in May.
Abacus said at the time that its net tangible asset value was $1.73 based on an independent valuation, and hence the consortium's bid was too low.
The consortium's bid was withdrawn in August, however, not before Ki Corporation ended up with control over 63.5% of the shares in Abacus.
In fact, three shareholders now control almost 95% of Abacus shares, with a company called Abacus Property Group holding 20.9% and Runway Technologies holding 10.2%.
Add to that NSR's shareholding of just under 5%, which it declared early this year, and you can account for nearly all of the Abacus shares in issue.
With major private equity players running the ruler over NSR, it stands to reason they might do the same for Abacus, and either launch a separate bid or look to take out both entities and combine them into one.
Any such deal could generate significant merger synergies.
Abacus shares were trading 10.4% higher after news of the NSR deal broke, to be changing hands for $1.54.
NSR, meanwhile, asked that its shares be placed in a trading halt pending an announcement "in relation to a potential control transaction for all of NSR's stapled securities''. The trading halt will remain in place until an announcement is made or until the start of trade on 28 November, the statement to the ASX said.
