BRE REIT Prices $276M Common Stock Offering

SAN FRANCISCO-Apartment REIT BRE Properties Inc. has priced an offering of seven million shares of common stock at $34.25 per share and could raise up to $275.7 million if underwriters exercise a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 1.05 million shares of the stock, which would bring the offering to more than eight million shares. In its prospectus for the offering, BRE says that it expects to receive net proceeds of approximately $229.66 million after deducting underwriting discounts and estimated transaction expenses of approximately $10 million. BofA Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo Securities and J.P. Morgan are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering.

BRE, which recently acquired 194 apartment units at the 262-unit Monarch at Scripps Ranch in San Diego County, says it will use the proceeds of the stock sale for general corporate purposes, which include reducing borrowings under its unsecured revolving credit facility, and may also include “financing for acquisitions of rental properties, funding for development activity, the repayment of other indebtedness, and the redemption or other repurchase of outstanding debt or equity securities,” a statement by the REIT says.