smh. takeover target

http://business.smh.com.au/business/beneath-the-sparkle-macau-turns-into-a-tough-joint-20081020-54sw.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Out the Dexus door

The tough times has prompted Dexus Property to show the door to 20 to 25 staffers.

While a majority were in back office and administrative support sections, it's a sign of how hard the real estate investment trusts are being hard hit.

There has not been a property sale at the $100 million level all year, and despite falling interest rates, buyers are remaining firmly on the sidelines.

But as securities prices keep falling, new rumours of mergers and acquisitions are emerging every day.

One of the longer-standing suggestions getting a new airing this week is that Dexus was again looking at Valad.

Word from the Dexus bunker is that it's business as usual and all opportunities (to expand) are being reviewed.

But analysts said Valad was a perpetual takeover target for any trust with a sizeable balance sheet, given it is trading at the almost incomprehensibly low price of 6.9c,

Meanwhile Britain's Independent newspaper has said that Land Securities, the FTSE 100 property giant, is understood to have abandoned plans to break up its £15 billion ($37 billion) real estate portfolio, following the departure of chairman Paul Myners to become the Government's new City minister.

The paper also says British Land has appointed headhunters to find a replacement for departing chief executive Stephen Hester, and it is rumoured Matthew Quinn, Stockland's managing director, is in the frame for the job.