Should Have Seen It Coming
The Piedmont Office Realty Trust has sent proxies to investors to extend the date for it to list by up to three years. The REIT was supposed to list by the end of January 2008, and is asking investors to extend the listing date until January 2011. This is unbelievable, but totally predictable. Leo was never really going to sell. The REIT is blaming the debt market and the poor REIT sector. REITs have been in the tank all year, and the REIT just obtained a huge new line of credit in September, at the height of the credit crisis, so both arguments are thin at best. I think this will be a very interesting proxy vote.