Jared Kushner’s family real-estate firm Kushner Cos said on Thursday it has made a hostile bid for Veris Residential Inc, as the company looks to address strategic and operational issues at the real estate investment trust.
Kushner Cos, which is one of Veris’ shareholders, has offered to acquire 100% of its outstanding shares at $16 per share. The price is a 28.8% premium to Veris’ last close of $12.42 on Thursday.
Veris Residential did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment after regular business hours.
In a letter to Veris board, disclosing the bid, Kushner Cos stated that Veris is “being mismanaged” and that the intrinsic value of Veris’ portfolio has been appreciably damaged over the last several years.
Kushner Cos also said it amassed a stake of 4.5 million shares in Veris over the past five months in the belief that Veris owns a high-quality real estate portfolio with long-term potential.
“Our attempts at fruitful engagement with the board and management over the last several months effectively been ignored,” Charles Kushner, chairman of Kushner Cos, wrote in the letter, adding that they had earlier proposed to the board strict oversight to ensure proper governance and transparency.
The deal, which would value Veris at $4.3 billion including debt, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Source: Reuters.com