ISS Recommends Shareholders of Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. Vote “AGAINST” Proposed Equity Commonwealth Transaction
Starwood Reaffirms its All-Cash Offer Delivering Higher Value and Greater Certainty for Monmouth Shareholders
Starwood Encourages Monmouth Board to Immediately Declare its Offer Superior and Proceed to Certain Close with Greater Value for Shareholders
MIAMI, August 6, 2021 – Starwood Real Estate Income Trust, Inc. (“Starwood”), an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group, a leading global private investment firm focused on real estate and energy investments, today commented on a report issued by Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (“ISS”), a leading independent proxy advisory firm. In its report, ISS recommends Monmouth Real Estate Investment Corp. (NYSE: MNR) (“Monmouth” or “MNR”) shareholders vote “AGAINST” Monmouth’s proposed transaction with Equity Commonwealth (“EQC”), which is scheduled to be voted on at a special meeting of Monmouth shareholders on August 24, 2021.
“We are pleased ISS recognizes that the value and uncertain upside of Monmouth’s proposed transaction with EQC renders it inferior to the Starwood offer. This recommendation is an important step toward ensuring that Monmouth shareholders can receive maximum, certain value from our superior offer.
“Starwood’s offer remains superior in both value and certainty to any bid that has been made during or after the strategic review process. In a letter to Monmouth’s Board today, Starwood reaffirmed its $18.88 per share net, all-cash offer and encouraged the Board to immediately declare its offer a “Superior Proposal” under the EQC merger agreement.
“Allowing the current transaction to proceed to a vote given the recommendation from ISS and the two-thirds requirement for approval would unnecessarily delay shareholders from receiving the superior value from the Starwood transaction and expose Monmouth to greater expense reimbursements to EQC for a transaction we believe is unlikely to gain shareholder approval. We stand ready to sign the already-negotiated merger agreement we provided to Monmouth that offers shareholders significantly greater value and certainty than EQC’s proposal, and we are resubmitting our all-cash proposal to the Monmouth Board today to leave absolutely no doubt that they are free to engage with us under the existing agreement with EQC. We encourage the Monmouth Board to act in the best interest of shareholders by immediately declaring the Starwood offer superior and moving quickly to close our proposed transaction.”
ISS notes in its report that1:
| • | | “…support is not warranted for the proposed [EQC] transaction, particularly in light of the greater value and certainty of the Starwood proposal.” |
| • | | “In consideration of [EQC]’s limited presence in industrial real estate, and the noticeable gap between EQC’s recent industrial acquisition history and the billions of dollars of acquisitions that are planned for the combined company, there remains substantial uncertainty that the combined company will be able to execute on the post-transaction opportunities touted by MNR’s board.” |
1 | Permission to use quotations neither sought nor obtained from ISS and emphasis added by Starwood. |