NEW YORK CITY — American Finance Trust Inc. (AFIN) has acquired all of the outstanding common stock of American Realty Capital – Retail Centers of America Inc. (RCA) for approximately $1.4 billion, including the assumption or repayment of $432 million in debt. The merger of the two New York-based, non-traded REITs creates a retail REIT with an enterprise value of approximately $3.9 billion. The combined company will retain the AFIN name and continue to be led by AFIN’s management team, with the addition of Kase Abusharkh from RCA, who will serve as AFIN’s chief investment officer of the multi-tenant portfolio. Members of both boards of directors will continue to serve on the board of the combined company. “The combination of AFIN and RCA will help the company achieve critical scale, afford improved access to capital markets, result in significant cost savings for shareholders and increase coverage of our distributions,” said Michael Weil, CEO of AFIN. “For AFIN, today’s announcement is a key step forward in our plan to grow earnings.” AFIN, formerly known as American Realty Capital Trust V Inc., was formed in January 2013 to acquire mostly freestanding, single-tenant retail properties leased to investment grade or other creditworthy tenants. …
