AVID Property's buyout bid values Australia's Ingenia Communities at $1.5 billion

Oct 26 (Reuters) - Australia's Ingenia Communities INA.AX said on Monday it received a takeover proposal from AVID Property Group Holdings Pty, valuing the firm at A$2.20 billion ($1.54 billion).

AVID's bid of A$5.40 for each Ingenia share, made on Friday after market hours, represents a premium of 13.4% to the land-lease community operator's last close.

It brings a rival bidder into the contest for the property developer, which has received three rounds of bids from Warburg Pincus, and could derail the company's planned A$992.5-million acquisition of Peet PPC.AX.

The board decided to enter into a process deed with AVID, diversified residential developer, and give it a period of "soft" exclusivity of up to six weeks, Ingenia said, terminating Warburg Pincus' access to its data room as a result.

Last week, the company set an October 23 deadline to sign a sign a process deed with Warburg Pincus, after three rounds of bids from the US private equity firm.

AVID's bid is 2.9% below Warburg Pincus' latest offer of A$5.25 apiece.

The AVID deal also hinges on Ingenia terminating an implementation deed with Peet PPC.AX, announced in late August as part of the latter's acquisition.

($1=1.4241 Australian dollars)