Equity One Drops Cedar Bid

PORT WASHINGTON, NY-Equity One, a North Miami Beach, FL-based grocery-anchored center owner has dropped its $380-million, $17-per-share bid for Cedar Shopping Centers. Equity One executives say that Cedar’s management did not give a quick enough response to their offer.

Equity One first made its bid on Thursday. At that time, the company asked Cedar executives to drop a proposed nine-million share public offering.

Cedar executives responded this morning, saying that they did not have enough time to make a decision on the deal by the 9 a.m. deadline Equity One executives originally set. Cedar’s statement, from its chairman Leo Ullman, came shortly after.

“We are disappointed that Cedar was unable to discuss with us or consider our offer in a timely fashion and are even more concerned that they are apparently continuing with their proposed nine-million share offering,” says Chaim Katzman, chairman and CEO of Equity One, in a statement.

The transaction would have added Cedar’s 58 centers in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio to Equity One’s portfolio of 188 properties, mostly in the South. The deal would have given Equity One, which entered the Northeast last year with the acquisition of six centers in the Boston area for $119.8 million, properties in states where it currently does not have a presence.