Starwood Capital Group plans to buy out shareholders in CA Immobilien Anlagen AG (WBAG:CAI), offering a 12% premium to January 8, 2021’s closing price to value the Austrian commercial property group at EUR 3.4 billion ($4.2 billion). Starwood, which raised its initial 26% stake in CA Immo to 30% over the course of 2020, will offer other holders EUR 34.44 per share, it said in a statement late January 8, 2021. The buyout will be formally triggered under Austrian law when Starwood passes the 30% ownership threshold. With the move, Starwood is doubling down on its wager on CA Immo’s prime German office space and its big land bank in the capital Berlin and other German cities. The pandemic triggered a collapse in property stocks last spring, and the offer price is still 18% below CA Immo’s 2020 high of EUR 41.85. The bid is the equivalent to CA Immo’s “triple-net” asset value per share, the NAV adjusted to reflect the current market value of the company’s debt and financial derivatives, and to include the deferred tax which would become payable if the company sold all its property. “We believe the offer provides a welcome opportunity for shareholders and convertible bondholders to realize liquidity,” Krysto Nikolic, Starwood’s head of real estate for Europe said in the statement. “We look forward to continuing to support the company, and in connection with the offer, it is one of Starwood Capital’s objectives to maintain CA Immo’s investment-grade credit rating".