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PHILADELPHIA-Taberna Realty Finance Trust, a locally based private REIT, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 23 to raise up to $345 million in an initial public offering. The SEC document does not contain the number or price of shares to be offered and no date for the IPO is set. The named underwriters are Friedman Billings Ramsey, Piper Jaffray and Flagstone Securities.

Taberna provides financing for REITs and other real estate companies and also acquires real estate. According to the filing, it was organized in March 2005 and is headed by Daniel G. Cohen, CEO. Cohen returned a call to GlobeSt.com, but is unable to comment on the filing at this time.

The SEC filing says Taberna completed private placement of common shares to institutional buyers via the Portal market, a subsidiary of the Nasdaq, which facilitates secondary sales of eligible unregistered securities. Those sales began on April 28, 2005 at $10 per share, and reached a high of $12.50 a share during the Oct. 1 through Nov.4 timeframe. As of Oct. 26, according to the SEC document, just over 43.6 million shares were issued.