The Archstone saga has been strange. For months last year and into this year, bankrupt Lehman battled Equity Residential in bankruptcy count for control of Archstone, a large apartment owner and operator. (Lehman bought Archstone near the end of the credit crisis.) Lehman finally won control of Archstone and planned an IPO of Archstone stock to raise cash to repay creditors. The IPO process started last summer. Yesterday, it was announced (via Bloomberg) that old nemesis Equity Residential, along with AvalonBay - the two largest listed apartment REITs - are buying Archstone for $6.5 billion. Lehman's creditors get $2.45 billion of the $6.5 billion.
From reading the article, I figure Lehman's value for Archstone was $5.66 billion when it finally won control earlier this year. Archstone's $6.5 billion price tag is a solid premium for Lehman, especially since the prospects of the IPO were not assured, but it was a tough road.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment