Real Estate Trust to Be Acquired
By Steve Jordon, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.
Jun. 25–An Omaha-based real estate investment trust said today that it plans to be acquired by a larger real estate company in a $532 million transaction.
America First Apartment Investors Inc. said it has signed an agreement to be acquired by Sentinel Real Estate Corp. of New York City. Sentinel would pay $25.30 cash for each of America First’s 11 million shares, or about $280 million, and assume the trust’s debts, which total about $251 million.
America First’s share price has ranged between $19.54 and $23 since April, when the company announced it was looking for a possible buyer. Sentinel’s offer is 24.9 percent higher than the share price before the April announcement.
The sale would close this fall, pending approval from America First Apartment Investors shareholders and other conditions, the companies said.
Burlington Capital Group LLC was general partner of America First Apartments before it became a separate investment trust. Burlington, an investment banking company founded by Omahan Michael Yanney, formerly was known as America First Cos. LLC.
Paul Belden, chief financial officer for America First Apartment Investors, said the trust’s 20 employees in Omaha and two in White Plains, N.Y., would not be retained after the sale.
America First Apartments purchased the Greenhouse apartments at 10th and Farnam Streets for $15.2 million last year. In 2005 the trust bought the 300-unit Tregaron Oaks Apartments in Bellevue for $19 million. Managers there would remain after the transaction, Belden said.
Since it began in 2003, America First Apartment Investors has acquired 32 apartment projects with 7,236 rental units and one commercial property.
Sentinel, which is privately owned, manages about $5 billion in real estate, including about 50,000 apartment units. David Weiner, vice chairman of Sentinel, said combining the apartment holdings would yield “significant economies of scale.”
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