American Assets Completes $648M IPO

SAN DIEGO-American Assets Trust Inc. has completed its initial public offering of 27.5 million shares of its common stock at $20.50 per share. In addition, the company said that underwriters exercised their full option to purchase more than 4.1 million shares at $20.50 per share.

According to a prospectus filed by American Assets, the REIT’s portfolio at the closing of the IPO is composed of 10 shopping centers, five office properties, a mixed-use property consisting of a 369-room all-suite hotel and a retail shopping center, and four multifamily properties. The REIT was formed to succeed to the real estate business of American Assets Inc., a privately held corporation founded in 1967 whose senior management team’s operational experience includes overseeing the acquisition or development of more than 9.5 million square feet of retail and office properties and more than 4,500 multifamily units, as well as the disposition of over 4.2 million square feet of retail and office properties and more than 3,600 multifamily units.

American Assets’ core markets historically have included San Diego, the San Francisco Bay Area and Oahu, Hawaii. The REIT’s prospectus says that, among other strategies, it plans “to pursue growth through the strategic acquisition of attractively priced, high quality properties that are well located in their submarkets, focusing on markets that generally are characterized by strong supply and demand characteristics, including high barriers to entry and diverse industry bases, that appeal to institutional investors.”

The 10 retail properties in its portfolio comprise approximately three million rentable square feet; the five office properties comprise approximately 1.5 million rentable square feet; the mixed-use property, Waikiki Beach Walk, includes approximately 97,000 rentable square feet of retail space and a 369-room all-suite hotel, which was redeveloped in 2007. The three apartment communities with stabilized occupancy rates, as well as an RV resort, which is currently operated as part of the company’s multifamily portfolio, in aggregate comprise 922 multifamily units (including 122 RV spaces).

BofA Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo Securities and Morgan Stanley are the joint book-running managers for the offering. The co-managers of the offering are KeyBanc Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets, Piper Jaffray, PNC Capital Markets LLC and JMP Securities.