Apartment Investment and Management Co., an apartment REIT, hascompleted a complicated stock conversion.

In the deal, AIMCO has converted $97.6 million, or 1.95 millionshares of trust convertible preferred securities into 1.967 millionshares of AIMCO's Class A common stock. A total of $149.5 millionin convertible preferred securities were assumed by AIMCO inOctober 1998, when it merged with Insignia Financial Group Inc. Thepreferred securities carry a conversion price of $49.61 per share,based on a liquidation amount of $50 per share that equates to1.0079 shares of Class A common stock for each preferred share. Theshares previously have been included in AIMCO's count of fullydiluted shares outstanding for purposes of calculating AdjustedFunds From Operations per share and FFO per share. Therefore, theaction does not increase AIMCO's fully diluted share count. AFF0and FFO are important measures of a REIT's financial health.

“The conversion of these preferred securities allows Aimco toincrease its financial flexibility by expanding the common equitybase as well as improving fixed charge-coverage ratios,” says PeterKompaniez, AIMCO president and vice chairman.