Tishman Speyer Properties and Lehman Brothers have agreed to buy US apartment developer Archstone-Smith Trust for $13.5 bn (EUR 10 bn) and debt, Bloomberg reported. Tishman, the New York-based real estate investor, and Lehman Brothers will pay $60.75 a share, 19% more than the May 24 closing price. Including debt, the total value of the transaction is $22.2 bn, the companies said on Tuesday in a statement.

Tishman Speyer Properties and Lehman Brothers have agreed to buy US apartment developer Archstone-Smith Trust for $13.5 bn (EUR 10 bn) and debt, Bloomberg reported. Tishman, the New York-based real estate investor, and Lehman Brothers will pay $60.75 a share, 19% more than the May 24 closing price. Including debt, the total value of the transaction is $22.2 bn, the companies said on Tuesday in a statement.

Archstone is the second-largest US apartment real estate investment trust, with a market value of $12.3 bn. The acquisition gives Tishman and Lehman Brothers more than 86,000 apartments from New York to San Francisco Archstone acquired five high-rise buildings in New York City last year to rank as the largest publicly traded apartment owner in Manhattan, according to the company's annual report. The company also expanded in Europe by purchasing DeWAG to gain 6,400 residential units, mainly in southern and western Germany.

Separately, Bloomberg reported that Blackstone Group, the manager of the world's second-biggest buyout fund, plans to sell a $7.41 bn bond backed by offices buildings from its $39 bn acquisition of Sam Zell's Equity Office Properties Trust last February. The takeover was the largest real estate deal in history.

Click on the link below for the interview with Sam Zell in the March issue of PropertyEU Magazine.