Australia's Abacus Storage King rises; Citi views company as potential takeover target

*Shares of Abacus Storage King ASK.AX rise as much as 3.7% to A$1.55 in early trade, their highest point since November 26

Citi views Abacus as an attractive target for a takeover and sees risk to the upside on a potential merger and acquisition

Public Storage-led PSA.N consortium in August abandoned its A$2.17 billion ($1.44 billion) takeover offer for the self-storage firm

Citi says Abacus stock now trading at a 13.8% discount to its net tangible assets (NTA), making a potential transaction closer to NTA more attractive for bidders and shareholders

Adds Public Storage's previous offer in April and sweetened bid in July signals strong interest in Abacus; recent buyout of rival National Storage REIT shows financial players willing to pay a premium for such self-storage transactions

Brokerage rates the stock "neutral", target price A$1.5

Stock up 32.9% so far this year, as of last close

($1 = 1.5060 Australian dollars)