Within months of investors pressuring Veris Residential to list itself for sale, the REIT has found a buyer.
A group of investors led by Affinius Capital and Vista Hill Partners has agreed to pay $19 per share in an all-cash transaction that could take Veris private. The deal values the company at $3.4B.
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The price is a 27.5% premium to Veris’ average stock price for the 30 days leading up to Feb. 4. Its board of directors unanimously approved the merger, which is expected to close in the second quarter.
The deal was struck after Erez Asset Management sent a letter to Veris on Dec. 1 calling for a review of strategic alternatives. The private investment fund’s executives estimated the REIT could sell for between $22 and $25 per share, representing as much as a 70% premium to its stock price at the time.
Despite the offer coming in below Erez’s estimates, shares in Veris jumped more than 12% Monday morning following the announcement to $18.82 as of noon.
The transaction is the result of the company’s “remarkable transformation into a sector-leading, pure-play multifamily REIT,” Veris Chair Tammy Jones said in a statement Monday.
Veris has spent years offloading its office assets, which were largely centered in New Jersey, starting before the pandemic and accelerating in 2021 when it changed its name from Mack-Cali Realty Corp. It sold the last of its commercial portfolio in 2024. As of a November investor presentation, Jersey City-based Veris owned approximately 6,500 apartment units across 17 buildings in the Northeast.
Veris has been targeted for acquisition by Kushner Cos., another large owner of apartments in New Jersey, which offered $18.50 a share for the company in late 2022.
At the time, Veris executives claimed that the offer undervalued the REIT and that they didn’t consider Kushner an “appropriate partner.”
Years later, it seems that the Kushner family has won after all. Vista Hill Partners is co-led by Kushner Real Estate Group President Jonathan Kushner, the nephew of Kushner Cos. founder Charles Kushner, alongside Roseland Property Co. and Canoe Brook Partners' Bradford Klatt.
Affinius Capital, formed in 2023 by the merger of USAA Real Estate and Square Mile Capital, has $61B in assets under management, including more than $12B in U.S. multifamily assets totaling approximately 33,000 units.
The deal is the latest in a wave of REIT mergers and acquisitions announced in recent months. Private equity in particular has swept in as REIT executives claim their assets are being undervalued by the public markets.
Peakstone Realty Trust is in the process of being sold to Brookfield Asset Management for $1.2B, Blackstone is leading a $1.5B deal to take over Alexander & Baldwin, and Makarora Management and Ares Alternative Credit reached a $2.1B privatization deal for Plymouth Industrial REIT.
Meanwhile, the plethora of private capital raised in recent years and yet to be deployed has led the number of initial public offerings among REITs to dwindle into oblivion. Just one REIT, Fermi America, went public last year.
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