Prologis (PLD) to acquire Liberty Property Trust in all-stock transaction.

Prologis (PLD) announced today that it will acquire Liberty Property Trust (LPT) in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $12.6 billion.  The acquisition of Liberty was said to be "highly complementary to our U.S. portfolio" according to PLD chairman and CEO Hamid Moghadam, and will deepen the company's presence in target industrial markets including Chicago, Houston, New Jersey and Southern California.  PLD also said that it expects to achieve initial cost savings of approximately $120 million from corporate G&A and other areas.

The transaction is scheduled to close in the first quarter of 2020.  Following the merger, Prologis expects to sell approximately $3.5 billion of non-core assets, including $700 million of office properties primarily located in the United Kingdom. Based on projected cost savings and other factors, PLD expects to achieve annual FFO accretion of approximately $0.14 - $0.16 per share.

A member of the S&P 500, Prologis is the world's largest owner/developer of industrial real estate properties with a managed industrial portfolio aggregating 797 million square feet and a total market capitalization of approximately $70 billion.

10/27/2019