Under the terms of the deal struck, Capital & Regional shareholders will receive 31.25p per share and 0.41946 new NewRiver shares.

Reflecting a value of 62.5p per share, this represents a premium of approximately 21%.

Shareholders in Capital & Regional will also be entitled to an interim dividend of 2.85p per share. This deal will now go before shareholder approval from both companies.

If completed by November, this will mean an interim dividend of 3p per share is paid to NewRiver shareholders. Likewise, Capital & Regional shareholders would be eligible for an additional dividend of 1.3p per share.

The companies’ management teams are hoping this will deliver approximately £6.2m of cost savings and a combined retail portfolio of £900m.

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“This is a compelling transaction which has a strong strategic, operational and financial rationale at an attractive point in the market cycle,” said Lynn Fordham, chair of NewRiver.

“In addition to providing enhanced scale with total assets under management, including NewRiver’s existing Capital Partnerships business of approx £2.4bn, the transaction will offer substantial cost savings and significant earnings accretion, enhancing the combined group’s ability to pay a materially higher, covered dividend whilst increased scale should also benefit share liquidity for shareholders.”

David Hunter, chair of Capital & Regional, added: “When weighing the standalone prospects of Capital & Regional against the combination, and in light of Growthpoint’s intentions regarding its majority stake, we believe this offer is in the best interests of Capital & Regional shareholders and are pleased to unanimously recommend it to them.”

The offer of £147m was made four days ago, soon after a planned takeover by Praxis fell through during talks.