Phillips Edison Grocery Center REIT I Completes Internalization

Phillips Edison Grocery Center REIT I, a publicly registered non-traded real estate investment trust, has acquired the real estate assets and third-party asset management business of its former sponsor and external advisor, Phillips Edison Limited Partnership, in a stock and cash transaction valued at approximately $1 billion.

The transaction, which was overwhelmingly approved by shareholders, creates an internally-managed, non-traded grocery-anchored shopping center REIT with 230 properties and a total enterprise value of approximately $4 billion.

“The acquisition of PELP marks a significant milestone in our evolution,” said Jeff Edison, chairman and chief executive officer. “This strategic acquisition allows us to benefit from one of retail real estate’s most comprehensive and successful operating platforms, which was built over the past 25 years. As such, we are now better able to capitalize on growth in the grocery-anchored shopping center industry by gaining scale through our portfolio, as well as our asset management business.”

He added, “We are also better positioned to take advantage of future value creation opportunities, including a potential future liquidity event.”

Phillips Edison Grocery Center REIT I launched in August 2010 and raised nearly $1.8 billion before closing the offering in the first quarter of 2014. Shares were originally sold for $10.00 each.

In May 2017, the company’s board of directors declared the estimated value per share of its common stock to be $10.20, as of March 31, 2017.

The combined enterprise owns a portfolio of 235 shopping centers comprising approximately 26.2 million square feet located in 32 states, as well as a third-party asset management business that manages more than $2 billion of grocery-anchored shopping centers.

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