The Centuria Capital Group (ASX: CNI) share price is one of the worst performers on the ASX markets today. While the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has opened strongly today, rising 0.74% at the time of writing to 7,075 points, Centuria Capital shares have gone the other way. Currently, the Centrica share price is down a hefty 6.36% to $2.58 a share.
That means that Centuria is now down around 9% from its 52-week high that we saw back in late April. Even so, this company is also still up more than 72% over the past 12 months.
So what's going on with Centuria Capital shares today?
Merger plans stoke some fear
Well, the movements today can be attributed to the ongoing merger that Centuria is presently negotiating. As we reported last week, Centuria is on the cusp of securing a merger with Primewest Group Ltd (ASX: PWG). Centuria first flagged a merger proposal with Primewest back in April. The offer is for 20 cents in cash and 0.473 in Centuria shares for each share of Primewest.
On 14 May, Primewest's board unanimously recommended that shareholders accept this offer from Centuria. Yesterday, Primewest issued another statement reiterating management's support for the offer, urging shareholders to accept it in the absence of a more favourable deal.
Well, all of this wheeling and dealing has gotten investors a little hot and bothered it seems.
Centuria is one of the worst-performing ASX shares today. It is also one of the most heavily traded. Data from CommSec shows that Centuria is currently the fifth-highest ASX share by volume at the time of writing, after being the most traded ASX share on the market at one point his morning. More than 75 million shares have swapped hands today already.
That's despite no major news or updates coming out about the proposed merger today. Well, that's aside from some routine ASX paperwork that the company released this morning. But that was just a notice of initial substantial holder that relates to the merger, nothing to get too excited over.
About the Centuria Capital Group share price
Centuria is an ASX fund manager specialising in real estate and investment bonds. It owns a portfolio of mostly real estate assets across both Australia and New Zealand. These include commercial offices and industrial warehouses, amongst others. ASX investors might be familiar with the Centuria Office REIT (ASX: COF) and the Centuria Industrial REIT (ASX: CIP) that these assets are housed in and that the company manages. On the current Centuria Capital share price, the company has a market capitalisation of $1.54 billion.
