WRIT Issuing 2.3 Million Shares

ROCKVILLE, MD-Washington Real Estate Investment Trust is issuing 2.3-million shares of beneficial interest, priced at $22.15 per share, to pay off debt incurred from its acquisition of One Central Plaza last week. Net proceeds from the sale of shares will be $48.2 million, while the line of credit for One Central Plaza was $43 million. The rest of the proceeds will be used toward the purchase of new income-producing properties, expanding or renovating existing properties and for general corporate purposes.

“Our investment of this $48 million of equity will be accretive to current earnings. This equity strengthens WRIT’s balance sheet, enabling us to make additional opportunistic investments while allowing us to maintain low leverage and high debt service coverage,” WRIT president Edmund B. Cronin, Jr. says.