Inland Real Estate To Be Acquired By DRA Advisors Funds In $2.3 Bln Deal

(RTTNews) - Inland Real Estate Corp.(IRC), a real estate investment trust, said it has agreed to be acquired by real estate funds managed by DRA Advisors LLC in a transaction valued at about $2.3 billion, including debt.

DRA Advisors is a registered SEC investment advisor with $6.8 billion of assets under management, headquartered in New York.

Under the terms of the deal, funds managed by DRA will acquire all issued and outstanding common stock of IRC for $10.60 per share in cash. The cash merger consideration represents a premium of about 6.6 percent over the company's closing stock price on December 14, 2015, the last trading day prior to the public announcement of the merger agreement.

Inland Real Estate or IRC noted that the merger agreement culminates a process that included extensive discussions with other potential strategic and financial buyers. Upon completion of the merger, IRC will become a privately-held real estate investment trust.

IRC's Board has unanimously approved the merger deal, which is expected to be completed in the first half of 2016. The deal requires the approval of IRC's stockholders, who will vote on the merger at a special meeting on a date to be announced.

IRC said it expects to pay regular monthly cash distributions of $0.0475 per share on the outstanding shares of its common stock until the merger closes.

In addition, the company will pay monthly cash dividends of $0.169271 per share on the outstanding shares of its 8.125 percent Series A cumulative redeemable preferred stock and and $0.144791667 per share on the outstanding shares of its 6.95% Series B cumulative redeemable preferred stock.

Within 15 days following the closing of the merger, the post-merger company will redeem all of the issued and outstanding shares of Series A and Series B Preferred Stock pursuant to its special optional redemption right.