Property group Stockland Corporation Ltd (ASX: SGP) announced on Monday that it would pursue its takeover negotiations with Aevum Ltd (ASX: AVE) despite the latter's rejection of a $266 million cash bid for the blanket acquisition of the retirement group's shares at 38 percent premium of the stock's closing price on Friday.

Following careful consideration, group chairman Graham Lenzer said that the company's board is rejecting Stockland's unsolicited and opportunistic proposal to buy Aevum shares it has yet to acquire for $1.50 per share, arguing that the offer substantially devalues the target stock.

However, Stockland managing director Matthew Quinn said that the takeover pursuit would stay and his group is still looking forward for further talks in spite of the takeover bid apparently thwarted by Aevum' board.

Mr Quinn expressed confidence that Stockland took a "very responsible approach to engagement and we look forward to having constructive dialogue with the Aevum board to pursue our offer," as he added that a spirit of goodwill has been maintained between the two entities.

He said that Stockland does not intend to revise the proposal in order to better lure Aevum's board into considering the bid as he stressed that the company would keep all its options open in pursuing the deal but discounted the possibility of a hostile takeover, saying that "it's not the nature of our group to do so."

News reports showed that Stockland's bid was presented to Aevum's board on Friday and after the board junked the proposal, the former lodged a full proposal with the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on the following Monday but the latter issued an advisory to its shareholders to ignore the move and wait for further developments.

At present, the property group maintains a 15.9 percent stake on Aevum with a number of shareholders already convinced in selling their stocks on the proposed price as Mr Quinn added that they would notify the ASX on the revised Stockland's holding within the next few days.

Stockland said that once the proposal is realised, the group's retirement villages would jump from its current count of 24 going to around 53 and resulting to about twice its present revenue as it added that funds for the bid would be sourced from cash reserves and undrawn debt facilities.

The market positively received the takeover news as both groups saw their stocks gaining some grounds and by 1143 AEST on Monday, Aevum shares were trading at $1.53, gaining by 44 cents or 40 percent while Stockland shares were trading at $3.84, collecting bit improvements of five cents or 1.32 percent.