KBS REIT III Declares Special Dividend
The board of KBS Real Estate Investment Trust III Inc., a publicly registered non-traded real estate investment trust, has approved an $0.80 per share special dividend to shareholders of record as of November 4, 2019.
The board of KBS Real Estate Investment Trust III Inc., a publicly registered non-traded real estate investment trust, has approved an $0.80 per share special dividend to shareholders of record as of November 4, 2019.
The dividend stems from the July 2019 sale of 11 properties to various subsidiaries of Prime US REIT, a newly formed Singapore real estate investment trust listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. The sale price of the portfolio was approximately $1.2 billion.
The special dividend will be paid in December 2019 in the form of either cash or shares of the company’s common stock, as long as the total amount of cash to be distributed does not exceed 35 percent of the total dividend.
Shareholders will likely receive 35 percent cash and 65 percent shares of common stock, unless a significant number of stockholders choose to receive their full dividend in the form of shares. All shareholders who choose the cash option will receive at least 35 percent of the dividend in cash.
The REIT will issue up to 8.1 million shares of common stock for the special dividend that will be based on an updated net asset value per share of the company’s common stock. The valuation will be determined in early December 2019, within two weeks of the special dividend being paid.
As a result of these shares being issued, the board plans to delay the processing of redemptions that would otherwise occur on the last business day of November 2019 under the share redemption program until the last business day of December 2019.
Prime US REIT is managed by a joint venture between KBS Asia Partners, and unaffiliated companies Keppel Capital Two Pte. Ltd and Experion Holdings Pte. Ltd.
KBS Asia Partners is an entity owned by KBS CEO Charles Schreiber Jr. and the Linda Bren 2017 Trust, which has an indirect majority ownership interest in the joint venture. Linda Bren is the widow of KBS co-founder and president Peter Bren, who passed away earlier this year
KBS REIT III’s initial offering commenced in October 2010 and closed in July 2015 after raising approximately $1.8 billion. As of the second quarter of 2019, the company’s REIT III portfolio was comprised of 20 properties valued at $3.1 billion, which does not include the 11 properties sold in July.
