Alex Wilson | August 10, 2009 Article from: Dow Jones Newswires GPT chief executive Michael Cameron says the property group has no plans to seek mergers and has not had talks with significant shareholder Stockland.
Stockland sparked market speculation about a possible merger last year when it took a 12.7 per cent stake in GPT, but Mr Cameron said there had been no talks between the companies about a deal.
"There has been a lot of discussion about potential mergers, but I haven't had any discussions with Stockland about potential mergers with GPT, and it's not on my radar," he told ABC television.
"We've got a great position going forward as a stand-alone company."
Mr Cameron said he saw property valuations softening in the short term but, when the market entered the recovery phase, GPT should perform well, as the downturn had been driven by excess debt rather than excess supply.
"That means that as demand grows going forward there'll be virtually no new stock on hand and that will keep prices up and see quite a quick rebound once things start to move, and that's encouraging," he said.
Last week GPT announced that it planned to focus entirely on its Australian assets and would exit all its overseas and non-core assets over time.
Mr Cameron said the company would focus on the active ownership of high-quality Australian retail, office and industrial assets, and build on its development and management capabilities.
Also last week, US hedge fund Och-Ziff paid almost $356 million for a 7.61 per cent stake in GPT, which is Australia's oldest property trust.
GPT created a world record with about 4.2 billion securities traded when the transaction occurred on Wednesday.
dont pple say... if there is smoke, there must be fire?
lolz
GPT Price at posting:
$2.68 Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held
A personalised tool to help users track selected stocks. Delivering real-time notifications on price updates, announcements, and performance stats on each to help make informed investment decisions.
(20min delay)