By Allison Landa<\/p>\n
The purported \u201cmerger of equals\u201d between industrial giants ProLogis and AMB Property Corp. moved a bit closer to completion this week as AMB\u2019s operating partnership, AMB Property L.P., began offers to exchange all outstanding notes. The notes, which are guaranteed by AMB, have an aggregate principal of $4.6 billion.<\/p>\n
The notes issued in exchange for the ProLogis notes will be exchangeable into AMB common stock, cash or a combination of the two. <\/p>\n
With stockholders scheduled to vote on the deal early next month, ProLogis announced that its first-quarter losses were sharply down from previous months, though revenue was weaker. ProLogis European Properties also rejected a takeover bid by ProLogis, claiming that its nearly $1.8 billion bid was too low. When proposing the takeover, ProLogis made it clear that it did not expect the move to have any effect on the merger with AMB.<\/p>\n
AMB has also been busy in advance of the merger. Working to stabilize its holdings in Japan, the firm recently closed four leases totaling 420,900 square feet at AMB Sendai-Tagajo Distribution Center in the town of Sendai. Sendai was one of the hardest hit in March\u2019s trifecta of disasters: an earthquake, tsunami and resulting nuclear fears.<\/p>\n
The ProLogis-AMB merger represents a potential sea change for the industrial sector. The combination of these two monoliths means a larger and more competitive firm for others to reckon with; however, industry experts who spoke with CPE about the merger were largely positive about its effects on the sector. \u201cThey\u2019re both exceptionally good companies and incredibly good people,\u201d Lee & Associates senior vice president Paul Earnhart said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The companies’ proposed “merger of equals” faces a vote early next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":936,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37301],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1004029131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n