Blackwells makes all cash offer to acquire Monmouth

Blackwells makes all cash offer to acquire Monmouth
Image : Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio

Alternative investment management firm Blackwells Capital LLC has made an approximately $3.8 billion all-cash offer to the Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corporation’s Board of Directors to acquire Monmouth, a public equity REIT, for $18.00 per share, including the assumption of debt.

Blackwells Capital LLC is one of the largest owners of Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corporation.

”Blackwells’ offer represents a 21.6% premium to the unaffected share price as of December 1, 2020,” said Blackwells in a statement.

Jason Aintabi, Chief Investment Officer of Blackwells, said, “As a public company, Monmouth has significantly underperformed comparable industrial REITs over the last five years, further exacerbated by the stock’s lack of liquidity. Blackwells’ cash offer provides shareholders immediate liquidity at a 17% premium above consensus net asset value – though the stock has long traded at a discount to it. Our offer also represents a premium to unaffected price well above the average premium for completed REIT deals over the last five years.”  

Added Aintabi, “After we privately made our first offer on December 1, I had a constructive dialog with the Company’s CEO Michael Landy, who expressed enthusiasm and a desire to engage. Soon thereafter, we received a puzzling follow-up letter from Michael’s father, Chairman Eugene Landy, indicating that on second thought Monmouth would not engage with us, because exploring our offer would ‘not be in the best interests of the company.’ For myriad and tangible reasons, Monmouth in its current state, does not belong in the public markets. Pursuing our offer is the best way to maximize value for all Monmouth shareholders.”

Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corporation, founded in 1968, is one of the oldest public equity REITs in the world. The company specializes in single tenant, net-leased industrial properties, subject to longterm leases, primarily to investment-grade tenants.

Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corporation is a fully integrated and self-managed real estate company, whose property portfolio consists of 120 properties containing a total of approximately 23.9 million rentable square feet, geographically diversified across 31 states. The Company’s occupancy rate as of this date is 99.6%.