Adler Real Estate AG chose a cash consideration option in Vonovia SE's takeover of conwert Immobilien Invest SE, heeding the conwert board's recommendation for shareholders to accept the offer in cash.

Adler has an approximate 26% stake in conwert, which means it is entitled to more than €422 million in cash when the tendered shares are processed in mid-January 2017. The cash consideration is priced at €16.16 per conwert share.

Arndt Krienen, CEO of Adler, said in a release that the company was not interested in becoming a Vonovia strategic shareholder, and saw the cash option in the takeover as more aligned with its targets and investors' expectations.

The company plans to use most of the cash proceeds to repay its higher-yielding liabilities.

Vonovia's takeover of conwert went through on Dec. 19 after the legal minimum acceptance threshold of 50% of the shares outstanding plus one share was surpassed. The Austrian Takeover Commission's earlier ruling that Adler and its partners qualified as acting in concert to obtain full control of conwert did not affect the takeover.