Is a Ramco-Equity One Merger Logical?

A possible merger between two publicly-traded retail REITs? What is this, like, 2006?News we thought we wouldn’t see for a very long time is shaping up. Apparently Jeffrey Olson, the chairman of Equity One sent a letter to Farmington Hills, MI-based Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust’s management, saying that the two companies should form a “closer business relationship.” In an SEC filing yesterday, Ramco said that, in addition to the letter from North Miami Beach, FL-based Equity One, it has “received indications of interest from third parties regarding certain potential transactions.” Click here to read the full Ramco filing, along with the Equity One letter. Equity One already owns 9.63% of Ramco’s outstanding shares.Ramco owns 89 community centers in the Midwest and Southeast. Its highest concentration of assets is in Michigan and Florida where it owns 35 and 25 properties, respectively. Equity One’s 160 properties are primarily in the Southeast, 95 of them in Florida and 29 in Georgia. Equity One’s occupancy is at 92.1%, and Ramco’s is at 91.3%.We haven’t seen any musings from analysts yet on this deal, but would a potential merger between these two companies make sense?