NEW YORK CITY-Are you ready for the next REIT buy-out? Tishman Speyer and Lehman Brothers are more than ready, according to reports. The firms are looking at Englewood, CO-based apartment REIT Archstone-Smith. Various reports put the trust's market cap at just over $12 billion, but according to the Archstone website, the number is closer to $20 billion. Once debt is added to the mix, the sale price could be somewhat higher.
The REIT currently has an ownership position in nearly 350 apartment communities--totaling 86,014 units. The geography of its ownership is national with concentrations in Washington, DC; Southern California; San Francisco; Seattle; Boston; and the New York metro area. This would complement nicely New York City-based Tishman's 14,000 residential units.
If the sale in fact goes though, it would merely be the next in a string of mergers and privatizations. Last week alone saw the merger of Grubb & Ellis with NNN Realty, and, in a significantly larger deal, Morgan Stanley's $6.5-billion buy-out of Crescent Real Estate Equities. Calls to a spokesperson for Tishman were not returned.
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