Public Storage May Acquire Abacus Storage King

A consortium of US investors led by Public Storage, the US-based real estate investment trust (REIT) Group, has offered $1.16 billion to acquire self-storage company Abacus Storage King (ASK), the second-largest player in the sector in Australia.

ASK, which operates more than 200 outlets in Australia and New Zealand, has confirmed on Monday that it has received a conditional and non-binding indicative proposal from the US firm Public Storage and Ki Corporation to fullu acquire the company on Friday last.

“We confirms that after market close on 4 April 2025, it received a conditional and non-binding indicative proposal from Ki Corporation Limited (Ki) and Public Storage (PSA) to acquire all of the outstanding stapled securities in ASK not already held by Ki or its subsidiaries, by way of an inter-conditional scheme of arrangement of Abacus Storage Operations Limited (ASOL) and trust scheme of Abacus Storage Property Trust (ASPT),” ASK said in a bourse filing with Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) this morning.

Under the terms of the Indicative Proposal, ASK security holders would receive $0.90 per stapled security, less any dividends or distributions declared after the date of the Indicative Proposal. Following implementation of the Indicative Proposal, it is expected that Public Storage would own approximately 50% of ASK’s securities with the balance held by Ki, ASK said in the filing.

Committee Formed

After receiving the offer, ASK has formed an independent board committee consisting its independent directors and it has commenced an assessment of the Indicative Proposal but has not at this stage formed any view on its merits, Abacus said.

The offer price is at a significant premium to the group’s close last Friday of $0.71 per security and well above the initial issue price of $0.86 in August 2023 when Abacus Group spun off the Storage King assets into a separate listed entity.

Through the planned acquisition, Public Storage and Ki Corporation would own 50% each of Abacus Storage King which had an estimated $2.14 billion in net assets at the end of December last year.

Public Storage is the world’s largest owner, operator and developer of self-storage facilities with 3,380 sites in the US servicing about two million customers.

The proposal from the US consortium is subject to several conditions, including due diligence as well as approvals from the Foreign Investment Review Board and the New Zealand Overseas Investment Office.

The buyout partners are also seeking a binding ruling from the Australian Taxation Office confirming that Abacus Storage Property Trust would qualify as a withholding managed investment trust.

Abacus Storage King owns and manages a self-storage portfolio across 147 assets providing 660,423 sq. m. of space.

ASK also has a growth pipeline comprising 19 new developments, which will expand existing group net lettable area by 17%, as well as six planned expansions of existing sites over the short to medium term.

The ASK business is heavily focused on metropolitan markets and over the latest half-year saw revenue per available metre increase by 5.4% per sq. m. This was driven by rental rate growth of 4.4% per sq. m. and a 90-basis-point increase in occupancy to 91%.