Inside information: Citycon Oyj announces tender offer for outstanding notes due 2024 of Citycon Treasury B.V.

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN OR INTO OR TO ANY PERSON LOCATED OR RESIDENT IN THE UNITED STATES, ITS TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS (INCLUDING PUERTO RICO, THE U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS, GUAM, AMERICAN SAMOA, WAKE ISLAND AND THE NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS), ANY STATE OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (THE “UNITED STATES”) OR TO ANY U.S. PERSON (AS DEFINED IN REGULATION S OF THE UNITED STATES SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED (THE “SECURITIES ACT”)) OR IN OR INTO ANY OTHER JURISDICTION WHERE IT IS UNLAWFUL TO RELEASE, PUBLISH OR DISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT (SEE “OFFER AND DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTIONS” BELOW).

Citycon Oyj (the “Company”) announces today its invitation to holders of the outstanding EUR 457,617,000 2.50 per cent Guaranteed Notes due 2024 of Citycon Treasury B.V. guaranteed by the Company (ISIN: XS1114434167) issued in separate tranches on 1 October 2014 and 10 June 2020 (the “Securities”), to tender such Securities for purchase by the Company for cash (the “Offer”) on the terms and subject to the conditions set out in the tender offer memorandum dated 22 May 2023 (the “Tender Offer Memorandum”) prepared by the Company. The Offer is subject to the offer and distribution restrictions set out below and as more fully described in the Tender Offer Memorandum.

Copies of the Tender Offer Memorandum are (subject to offer and distribution restrictions) available from the Tender Agent as set out below. Capitalised terms used in this announcement but not defined have the meanings given to them in the Tender Offer Memorandum.

Summary of the Offer

A summary of certain terms of the Offer appears below:

Rationale for the Offer

The purpose of the Offer is, amongst other things, to deleverage the Company’s balance sheet and manage the debt maturity profile.

Details of the Offer

Purchase Price

The price the Company will pay for Securities validly tendered and accepted for purchase by the Company pursuant to the Offer will be EUR 975 per EUR 1,000 in principal amount. 

Maximum Acceptance Amount and Acceptance Amount

The Company proposes to accept, on the terms and subject to the conditions described in the Tender Offer Memorandum, Securities for purchase up to a maximum principal amount (the “Maximum Acceptance Amount”) such that the total purchase consideration for Securities validly tendered and accepted for purchase (including Accrued Interest Payments) does not exceed EUR 175,000,000.  The Company reserves the right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to purchase more or less than the Maximum Acceptance Amount. The Company will determine the aggregate principal amount of Securities which the Company elects to purchase pursuant to the Offer (the “Acceptance Amount”) in its sole and absolute discretion.

The total purchase consideration for Securities validly tendered and accepted for purchase (including Accrued Interest Payments) will be funded by cash on the Company's balance sheet. The Company is not under any obligation to accept for purchase any validly tendered Securities pursuant to the Offer.  The acceptance for purchase by the Company of Securities tendered pursuant to the Offer is at the sole and absolute discretion of the Company and tenders may be rejected for any reason, subject to applicable law. The Company reserves the right at any time to waive any or all of the conditions of the Offer as set out in the Tender Offer Memorandum.

Accrued Interest Payment

The Company will also pay, on the Settlement Date, an Accrued Interest Payment in respect of Securities accepted for purchase pursuant to the Offer.

Tender Instructions

In order to participate in, and be eligible to receive the Purchase Price and Accrued Interest Payment pursuant to the Offer, Holders must validly tender their Securities by delivering, or arranging to have delivered on their behalf, a valid Tender Instruction that is received by the Tender Agent by 4.00 p.m. (London time) on 26 May 2023 (the “Expiration Deadline”).

Tender Instructions will be irrevocable except in the limited circumstances described in the Tender Offer Memorandum. A separate Tender Instruction must be completed on behalf of each beneficial owner.

Scaling

In the circumstances described in the Tender Offer Memorandum in which Securities validly tendered pursuant to the Offer are to be accepted on a pro rata basis, each such tender will be scaled by a factor equal to (i) the Acceptance Amount, divided by (ii) the aggregate principal amount outstanding of the Securities that have been validly tendered (subject to adjustment to allow for the aggregate principal amount of Securities accepted for purchase, following the rounding of Tender Instructions as set out below, to equal the Acceptance Amount exactly). Each tender of Securities that is scaled in this manner will be rounded down to the nearest €1,000 in principal amount, in the manner set out in the Tender Offer Memorandum.

Indicative Timetable for the Offer

The above times and dates are subject to the right of the Company to extend, re-open, amend, waive any condition of and/or terminate the Offer (subject to applicable law and as provided in the Tender Offer Memorandum). Holders are advised to check with any bank, securities broker or other intermediary through which they hold Securities by when such intermediary would need to receive instructions from a Holder in order for that Holder to be able to participate in, or (in the limited circumstances in which revocation is permitted) revoke their instruction to participate in, the Offer before the deadlines specified above and in the Tender Offer Memorandum. The deadlines set by any such intermediary and each Clearing System for the submission of Tender Instructions will be earlier than the relevant deadlines specified above. See “Procedures for Participating in the Offer” in the Tender Offer Memorandum.

Unless stated otherwise, announcements in connection with the Offer will be made (i) by publication via the RIS publication section of the website of the Irish Stock Exchange plc trading as Euronext Dublin (“Euronext Dublin”) (https://direct.euronext.com/#/rispublication) and (ii) by the delivery of notices to the Clearing Systems for communication to Direct Participants. Such announcements may also be made on the relevant Reuters Insider Screen and by the issue of a press release to a Notifying News Service. Copies of all such announcements, press releases and notices can also be obtained upon request from the Tender Agent, the contact details for which are below. Significant delays may be experienced where notices are delivered to the Clearing Systems and Holders are urged to contact the Tender Agent for the relevant announcements during the course of the Offer. In addition, Holders may contact the Dealer Managers for information using the contact details below.

Holders are advised to read carefully the Tender Offer Memorandum for full details of and information on the procedures for participating in the Offer.

Danske Bank A/S (Telephone: +45 33 64 88 51, Email: liabilitymanagement@danskebank.dk, Attention: Debt Capital Markets), Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft (Telephone: +44 20 7545 8011; Attention: Liability Management Group) and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (publ) (Telephone: +44 78 1842 6149; E-mail: liabilitymanagementdcm@seb.se; Attention: Liability Management) are acting as Dealer Managers for the Offer and Kroll Issuer Services Limited (Telephone: +44 20 7704 0880; Attention: Thomas Choquet; Email: citycon@is.kroll.com; Tender Offer Website: https://deals.is.kroll.com/citycon) is acting as Tender Agent for the Offer.

Questions and requests for assistance in connection with (i) the Offer may be directed to the Dealer Managers; and (ii) the delivery of the Tender Instructions may be directed to the Tender Agent, the contact details for each of which are set out above.

DISCLAIMER This announcement must be read in conjunction with the Tender Offer Memorandum. This announcement and the Tender Offer Memorandum contain important information which should be read carefully before any decision is made with respect to the Offer. If any Holder is in any doubt as to the action it should take, it is recommended to seek its own financial and legal advice, including in respect of any tax consequences, immediately from its broker, bank manager, solicitor, accountant or other independent financial, tax, legal or other adviser. Any individual or company whose Securities are held on its behalf by a broker, dealer, bank, custodian, trust company, direct participant or other nominee or intermediary must contact such entity if it wishes to tender such Securities pursuant to the Offer. None of the Company, the Dealer Managers or the Tender Agent, or any person who controls, or is a director, officer, employee or agent of such persons or any affiliate of such persons, makes any recommendation as to whether Holders should tender Securities pursuant to the Offer.

This announcement is released by Citycon Oyj and contains information that qualified or may have qualified as inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 (MAR), encompassing information relating to the Offer described above. For the purposes of MAR and Article 2 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1055, this announcement is made by Bret McLeod, CFO at Citycon Oyj.

Offer and Distribution Restrictions

The distribution of this announcement and the Tender Offer Memorandum in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession this announcement and/or the Tender Offer Memorandum comes are required by each of the Company, the Dealer Managers and the Tender Agent to inform themselves about, and to observe, any such restrictions. Neither this announcement nor the Tender Offer Memorandum constitutes an offer to buy or a solicitation of an offer to sell Securities (and tenders of Securities in the Offer will not be accepted from Holders) in any circumstances in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. In those jurisdictions where the securities, blue sky or other laws require the Offer to be made by a licensed broker or dealer and any of the Dealer Managers or any of their respective affiliates is such a licensed broker or dealer in any such jurisdiction, the Offer shall be deemed to be made by the relevant Dealer Manager or such affiliate, as the case may be, on behalf of the Company in such jurisdiction.

United States: The Offer is not being made and will not be made, directly or indirectly, in or into, or by use of the mails of, or by any means or instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce of, or of any facilities of a national securities exchange of, the United States or to any U.S. Person (as defined in Regulation S of the Securities Act (each a “U.S. Person”)). This includes, but is not limited to, facsimile transmission, electronic mail, telex, telephone, the internet and other forms of electronic communication. Accordingly, copies of this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum and any other documents or materials relating to the Offer are not being, and must not be, directly or indirectly, mailed or otherwise transmitted, distributed or forwarded (including, without limitation, by custodians, nominees or trustees) in or into the United States or to a U.S. Person and the Securities cannot be tendered in the Offer by any such use, means, instrumentality or facility or from or within, or by persons located or resident in, the United States or by any U.S. Person. Any purported tender of Securities in the Offer resulting directly or indirectly from a violation of these restrictions will be invalid and any purported tender of Securities made by a person located in the United States, a U.S. Person, by any person acting for the account or benefit of a U.S. Person, or by any agent, fiduciary or other intermediary acting on a non-discretionary basis for a principal giving instructions from within the United States will be invalid and will not be accepted.

Each Holder participating in the Offer will represent that it is not a U.S. Person located in the United States and is not participating in such Offer from the United States, or it is acting on a non-discretionary basis for a principal located outside the United States that is not giving an order to participate in the Offer from the United States and who is not a U.S. Person. For the purposes of this and the above paragraph, “United States” means the United States of America, its territories and possessions (including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Wake Island and the Northern Mariana Islands), any state of the United States of America and the District of Columbia.

Italy: None of the Offer, this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum or any other documents or materials relating to the Offer have been submitted to the clearance procedures of the Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (“CONSOB”). The Offer is being carried out in the Republic of Italy (“Italy”) as an exempted offer pursuant to article 101-bis, paragraph 3-bis of the Legislative Decree No. 58 of 24 February 1998, as amended (the “Financial Services Act”) and article 35-bis, paragraph 4 of CONSOB Regulation No. 11971 of 14 May 1999, as amended. Accordingly, Holders or beneficial owners of the Securities can tender some or all of their Securities pursuant to the Offer through authorised persons (such as investment firms, banks or financial intermediaries permitted to conduct such activities in Italy in accordance with the Financial Services Act, CONSOB Regulation No. 20307 of 15 February 2018, as amended from time to time, and Legislative Decree No. 385 of 1 September 1993, as amended) and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations or with requirements imposed by CONSOB or any other Italian authority.

Each intermediary must comply with the applicable laws and regulations concerning information duties vis-à-vis its clients in connection with the Securities and/or the Offer.

United Kingdom: The communication of this announcement, the Tender Offer Memorandum and any other documents or materials relating to the Offer is not being made and such documents and/or materials have not been approved by an authorised person for the purposes of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Accordingly, such documents and/or materials are not being distributed to, and must not be passed on to, the general public in the United Kingdom. The communication of such documents and/or materials as a financial promotion is only being made to, and may only be acted upon by, those persons in the United Kingdom falling within the definition of investment professionals (as defined in Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, as amended (the “Financial Promotion Order”)) or persons who are within Article 43(2) of the Financial Promotion Order or any other persons to whom it may otherwise lawfully be made under the Financial Promotion Order.

France: The Offer is not being made, directly or indirectly, in the Republic of France (“France”). None of this announcement, or the Tender Offer Memorandum or any other documents or materials relating to the Offer have been or shall be distributed in France other than to qualified investors as defined in Article 2(e) of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129, as amended. The Tender Offer Memorandum and any other document or material relating to the Offer have not been and will not be submitted for clearance to nor approved by the Autorité des marchés financiers.

Finland: None of the Offer, this announcement or the Tender Offer Memorandum shall be deemed to constitute any offering of securities or any bid for securities as defined in the Finnish Securities Market Act (746/2012, as amended). The Offer is not made to the public either inside or outside of the Republic of Finland (“Finland”). The Tender Offer Memorandum and any other document or material relating to the Offer have not been and will not be approved or authorised by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority nor any other competent authority.

CITYCON OYJ

For further information, please contact:
Bret McLeod
Chief Financial Officer
Tel. +46 73 326 8455
bret.mcleod@citycon.com

Sakari Järvelä
VP, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations
Tel. +358 50 387 8180
sakari.jarvela@citycon.com


Citycon is a leading owner, manager and developer of mixed-use real estate featuring modern, necessity-based retail with residential, office and municipal service spaces that enhance the communities in which they operate. Citycon is committed to sustainable property management in the Nordic region with assets that total approximately EUR 4.2 billion. Our centres are located in urban hubs in the heart of vibrant communities with direct connections to public transport and anchored by grocery, healthcare and other services that cater to the everyday needs of customers.

Citycon has investment-grade credit ratings from Moody's (Baa3) and Standard & Poor's (BBB-). Citycon’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd.

www.citycon.com