ARCP Eyes $1.6B from Stock Sale

NEW YORK CITY—What began as a 100-million-share stock sale earlier this week has ended up totaling 138 million shares when the underwriters on American Realty Capital Properties‘ public offering had their say. The net lease REIT said Thursday evening that underwriters had fully exercised their overallotment option, buying an additional 18 million shares at $12 apiece, culminating one of the largest REIT equity offerings on record.

ARCP is expecting total net proceeds of $1.59 billion from the upsized stock sale, which law firm Proskauer Rose said was the third largest stock offering in REIT history at 120 million shares before the underwriters exercised their option. Despite its coinciding with the acquisition announced last week of more than 500 Red Lobster properties in a $1.5-billion sale-leaseback, the stock sale will not be used to fund that deal, but instead will go for paying down debt and other general corporate purposes.