This morning, U.S. private equity firm Blackstone Group announced it would buy Gramercy Property Trust (GPT), a company that was introduced to us last November by Robert Ruggirello, CFA when we held an Office Hour session to discuss the REIT market.
Robert posted a Valuation Waterfall, a valuation model, and numerous other research notes for Gramercy on March 26th of this year, when the shares were trading for around $22.00 / share. Blackstone has offered $27.50 per share for Gramercy in an all-cash deal worth $7.6 billion in total.
The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year and Reuters reports that holders of GPT will receive a second quarter dividend of $0.375 per share.
As we mentioned in a recent Office Hour session when we spoke with Robert about Gramercy, we had invested in the shares and have enjoyed a very quick and painless 25% gain on that position, plus a dividend payment. The truism that no one ever bets enough on the winning horse was true in our case, as we had allocated only a 2% position to Gramercy. In investing, there is always something to regret.
Robert will be discussing another REIT idea this Friday — STORE Capital (STOR). I hope you can make the call!