Lederer hits back at Elanor on index comparison, calls for forensic accountant
Make us a preferred source
Make us a preferred source on Google
The news: Family office Lederer Group has again hit back at statements made by Elanor Commercial Property Fund (ECF) in regards to Lederer’s bid to acquire the fund.
The context: Last month, ECF published statements from an independent expert that deemed Lederer’s bid as “not reasonable”. Lederer made a 70 cents per share bid for ECF while the independent expert said it was worth in the range of 73 cents to 75 cents.
ECF last closed at 68 cents.
Today, Lederer said a number of examples that were used to compare premia to net tangible asset (NTA) in historical Australian REIT cash consideration transactions were not appropriate.
It also pointed to an earlier target statement by ECF’s independent board committee (IBC) that compared ECF’s return from its initial public offering to 1 August 2025 against the “ASX A-REIT Office Index” and then again as the “S&P/ASX A-REIT Office Index”.
“The Bidder is not aware of any custom index called the ‘ASX A-REIT Office Index’ or ‘S&P/ASX A-REIT Office Index’ that is sponsored and governed by S&P DJI or otherwise recognised in the Australian equities market,” Lederer said.
“...it appears that this ‘index’ has been compiled by the ECF IBC from a select number of ASX-listed A-REITs which the ECF IBC has determined to be ‘office A-REITs’.”
Lederer said the performance of ECF should be compared with an independent index such as the S&P/ASX 300 A-REIT index and that it had underperformed this index over the year to 30 June 2025. It said ECF returned 3.2% compared to the 12.8% by the index.
Lederer also stated it was concerned with the lack of disclosure regarding the going concern risk of Elanor Investors Group; the impact of the Rockworth recapitalisation transaction on Elanor and ECF; and related party fees.
On the related party fees, Lederer pointed to Elanor’s FY2024 annual report that stated it generated $6.1 million in income from ECF. However, fees paid to Elanor during that year according to ECF’s FY2024 annual report was about $5.3 million.
“It is unclear from the disclosures in the Elanor and ECF FY2024 annual reports, nor the ECF FY2025 annual report which restates the FY2024 results, what the approximate $700,000 difference in reported fees concerns,” Lederer said.
Lederer said its complaint about the disclosure and quantum of fees paid to Elanor remained unresolved “to the satisfaction of the Lederer Family Office”. It has also requested that ECF’s responsible entity appoint a forensic accountant to investigate the issue.
What they said: Lederer chair Paul Lederer said: “We will continue to fight for all ECF investors, including for the appointment of a forensic accountant to investigate the fees that have been charged by Elanor”.
The source: ASX
