Cousins Completes Parkway Buy, Spin-Off

The spin-off of the Houston portfolio “allows us to capitalize on that market’s eventual resurgence,” Gellerstedt said in April.

ATLANTA—Cousins Properties Inc. has completed its $2-billion merger with Parkway Properties and completed the spin-off of its Houston assets into a separate publicly traded company. The spin-off, Parkway Inc., will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PKY. Shares of the post-merger Cousins will continue to trade under the CUZ symbol.

When the Cousins/Parkway Properties merger was announced in April, Cousins president and CEO Larry Gellerstedt said it would “continue Cousins’ heritage as a proven ‘sharpshooter’ in the growing Sun Belt markets, deepening our presence in Atlanta, Austin and Charlotte and establishing a strong presence in Phoenix, Orlando and Tampa. We firmly believe our shareholders will benefit by having an expanded portfolio of office towers in key urban submarkets, greater tenant and geographic diversity and enhanced access to the capital markets.” At the same time, he added, “we believe that unlocking the value in our Houston portfolio allows us to capitalize on that market’s eventual resurgence.”