Nardi says Merrill Lynch & Co., hired by Prime Group Realty Trust to explore "strategic alternatives" for the REIT that is continuing to emerge from a heavy debt burden, has been talking with potential purchasers.
"We're still continuing to discuss the possibility. We're pursuing anything that comes to us," says Nardi, adding the company continues to receive unsolicited offers.
However, the REIT is not shopping individual properties in its portfolio, which includes seven million sf of city and suburban office buildings in addition to the 1.5-million-sf Bank One Corporate Center it now owns with a joint venture partner.
"We haven't been offering our individual properties because we think there's more value as a whole than piecemeal at this time," Nardi says.
Meanwhile, Nardi went on to say that the company's board of trustees is reviewing the possibility of reinstating dividends to preferred stockholders, who can elect two members of its own to the board if they go without pay-outs for six straight quarters. That could happen as early as March 2004.
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