S&P Pulls the Plug on Pacific Gulf Properties' Rating

NEWPORT BEACH, CA-The final chapter of corporateexistence drew a little closer for Pacific Gulf Properties Tuesday with the announcement by Standard & Poor’s that it was withdrawing the firm’s double-B corporate rating.

Elizabeth Campbell, a director for Standard & Poor’s, noted that this was a normal procedure since Pacific Gulf has no investors left in rated securities.

“We rate debt and preferred stock of which thiscompany had neither,” Campbell says. “They used to have some convertible stock “

At a special meeting held earlier this month, Pacific Gulf shareholders voted to approve the company’s plan for liquidation. The firm will sell most of its portfolio of industrial properties to CalWest Industrial Properties for $856.9 million. The company also has some deals working for the sale of its remaining multifamily property portfolio. Additionally, the shareholders approved selling off the remainder of the company’s assets and to liquidate and dissolve the company.

“The deal has been signed, so at this point there’s not much left as far as liquid assets. It’s of no interest to anyone to follow the company,” Campbell says.

Pacific Gulf reported FFO of $17 million for the third quarter of the year earlier this month. The company’s FFO for the first three quarters of the year increased 13% over FFO for the same period of 1999.

Traded on the New York Stock Exchange as PAG, Pacific Gulf’s common shares were unchanged Tuesday at $27 a share, on 25,600 shares being traded for the day.