The offer expired at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday. SITQ was to pay for the shares today, giving SITQ and its affiliates and associates approximately 27.9 million common shares of Bentall, or 98.8% of the company's outstanding common shares. Pursuant to the Canada Business Corporations Act, SITQ says it now intends to acquire all of the shares held by persons who have not accepted the offer.

SITQ is a longtime shareholder in Bentall. Prior to the tender offer, the company owned about 53% of Bentall and had a $6 billion portfolio comprised of 34 million sf distributed among 170 buildings and six countries. At last count, Bentall had 6.2 million sf of real estate under its belt with an aggregate value of $1.9 billion. Bentall US, its Bellevue, WA-based subsidiary, is responsible for 55% of the company's total revenue.

The privatization is occurring at a time of significant activity for Bentall. In addition to unloading a $560-million, five-property portfolio, it has begun construction of the 566,000-sf, 33-story Bentall Five office tower in Vancouver.