Blackstone Readies Post-Merger EOP Plans

CHICAGO- The New York City-based Blackstone Group has responded positively to the successful vote Wednesday for its purchase of Equity Office Properties Trust, through an EOP shareholder vote, for $55.50 a share, or about $39 billion. Some 275 million shares (77% of the total) were represented at the special meeting on Wednesday, and 92% of those shares voted in favor of the all-cash Blackstone offer. The vote came just hours after Vornado Realty Trust removed its competing bid of $41 billion, which included a stock/cash offer and a deal that would have taken a few months to close, from the table.

Blackstone is expected to close its all-cash deal by Friday, and Richard Kincaid, president and chief executive officer of EOP, has a meeting here in Chicago with an acquisition team, which will likely include Jon Gray, Blackstone’s senior managing director for real estate, on Monday.

Kincaid might have a little explaining to do. In a press conference following the EOP vote, Kincaid said it’s his guess that Blackstone will probably be selling off more of EOP’s properties than expected, because of the price Blackstone ended up paying after the bidding war. “They may need to mark up the assets more than they planned,” Kincaid said. However, a source close to the deal tells GlobeSt.com that Kincaid was talking out of school about Blackstone’s plans for EOP assets.