NEW YORK CITY — An affiliate of Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has acquired a 9.9 percent interest in New York-based office/retail REIT Empire State Realty Trust (NYSE: ESRT) for $622 million.
QIA purchased 29.6 million newly issued Class A common shares of ESRT at $21 per share. The interest was acquired on a fully diluted basis, which is currently 19.4 percent ownership of Class A shares.
Darcy Stacom of CBRE Group introduced QIA to ESRT. Goldman Sachs and Eastdil Secured acted as financial advisors. Goodwin Procter, Proskauer Rose and Clifford Chance U.S. acted as counsel. White & Case acted as QIA’s legal counsel.
Empire State Realty Trust owns, manages, operates, acquires and repositions office and retail properties across New York City, including the Empire State Building. The company’s office and retail portfolio covers 10.1 million rentable square feet, consisting of 9.4 million rentable square feet in 14 office properties and 720,000 rentable square feet of retail.
ESRT’s stock price closed at $20.52 per share on Tuesday, Aug. 23, up from $16.41 one year ago.
The State of Qatar founded Qatar Investment Authority in 2005 to strengthen the country’s economy by diversifying into new asset classes. QIA is headquartered in Doha with a subsidiary in New York called Qatar Investment Authority Advisory (US) Inc.
— Haisten Willis