National Storage REIT's Takeover Splits Its Own Shareholders

Fund managers debate whether a $2.86 a share Brookfield and GIC bid captures the true value of Australia's top storage platform

31 Jan 2026 · 5 min read

Not every long-standing shareholder is willing to accept the price on offer for National Storage REIT. Resolution Capital argued in December 2025 that the $2.86 per share takeover bid from Brookfield and Singapore's GIC was inadequate, saying it actually agreed with the bidders that NSR is a great real estate platform, which is precisely why the price reflects great value for the buyer rather than the seller. The manager described NSR as the only publicly traded, internally advised self-storage vehicle in Asia Pacific and one of only ten of any substance worldwide, operating in a market with strong population growth and limited self-storage space per capita, a demand and supply setup it said is more favourable than in many other developed markets and not fully captured in the company's net asset value.

This is an unusual and high-quality platform that anyone would struggle to replicate. Once gone it is likely to be many years before we would be able to invest in something of this quality and scale... We urge shareholders reject the current bid.

— Resolution Capital, Article, December 2025

A bid most other managers were prepared to accept

Most other managers took a more pragmatic view of the same offer. Oracle Advisory Group calculated the risk-reward directly, noting the all-cash bid represented a 26 per cent premium to the pre-announcement share price and 12.5 per cent above net tangible assets of $2.58, and that with the deal having moved to binding, the remaining upside to completion was only around 5 per cent over an estimated six-month period, against a potential 25 per cent-plus downside if the bid fell through. The manager sold out of the position on that asymmetry rather than betting on the deal completing at a higher price. Firetrail Investments took a similarly constructive view of the bid's credibility, pointing to the financial firepower of Brookfield and GIC, and GIC's existing joint ventures with NSR, as reasons to view the approach as highly credible.

A profitable exit for those who bought the discount

Endeavor Asset Management's own experience illustrates why many managers were content to let the deal proceed. The manager said it had opportunistically invested in NSR in March 2025 at around a 17 per cent discount to net tangible assets, and that if the scheme closed successfully at $2.86 a share, an 11 per cent premium to NTA and 26 per cent premium to the pre-bid price, its Balanced portfolio investors would enjoy a total return of roughly 34 per cent including dividends. The manager said it never relies purely on a takeover to form an investment thesis, but noted private equity has been very active consolidating the self-storage industry both globally and in Australia, making the eventual recognition of value unsurprising.

As usual, if there is value on offer for a prolonged period then it's only a matter of time before it is recognised by either a public or private investor, in this case and in the case of the self-storage industry consolidation, private equity has been very active.

— Endeavor Asset Management, Monthly Report, November 2025

What managers are watching next

With Endeavor Asset Management having exited following the scheme's progression in January 2026, having collected the dividend and seeing limited further upside given the tight spread to the offer price, the key question left for the market is whether Resolution Capital's argument that the bid materially undervalues NSR's platform gains any traction through the independent expert's report, or whether the scheme proceeds to completion at $2.86 a share as most other managers have assumed.