Land & Buildings Wants to Buy LXP Industrial Trust

LXP Industrial Trust, a real estate investment trust that is an owner, developer, operator, and acquirer of premium industrial properties in the U.S., announced that it had received a $4.5 billion acquisition offer from registered investment manager Land & Buildings. 

LXP, previously known as Lexington Realty Trust, reported in its last annual report that it owned about 130 consolidated real estate properties with 56.1 million sq. ft. of rentable space, 93% of which was leased.

Land & Buildings offered $16 a share, which at roughly 282 million diluted outstanding shares would be about $4.5 billion. The last time LXP saw a stock price that high was on September 1, 2008, right before the market crashed.

In its letter to LXP, the company said it would prefer a merger agreement. “We believe our proposal represents the best means for stockholders of LXP to maximize the value of their shares,” wrote founder and CIO Jonathan Litt.

Litt ended the letter with, “We expect that the Board will seriously consider our proposal and meet with us promptly. We intend to evaluate all our options and take appropriate action with respect to LXP, including making our offer public, should we fail to hear a favorable response from the Board to our proposal.”

Land & Buildings is an activist investor, having opposed AIMCO’s reverse spin-off in 2020, undertaken proxy fights at Taubman Centers in 2019 and called on Hudson’s Bay to take itself private in 2018 among many other initiatives. 

LXP’s stock had been trading at about 16.6 times last-twelve-month (LTM) revenue and 21.2 times EBIDTA, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. LTM net income on September 30, 2021 (latest reported numbers) was $224.7 million.