W. P. Carey Announces Proposed Acquisition of CPA:15 for $2.6B and Conversion to REIT

Investment firm W. P. Carey & Co. LLC

announced today that its Board of Directors has approved its conversion to a real estate investment trust and that its Board of Directors and the Board of Directors of its publicly held, non-traded REIT affiliate, Corporate Property Associates 15 Incorporated, have unanimously approved a definitive merger agreement pursuant to which W. P. Carey will acquire CPA®:15 immediately following the REIT conversion. Under the terms of the proposed merger, CPA®:15 stockholders will receive $125 in cash and 0.2326 of a share of W. P. Carey common stock for each CPA®:15 share at closing. The transaction values CPA®:15 at $2.6 billion, including the assumption of CPA®:15 debt of $1.2 billion, as of December 31, 2011. The new REIT, to be named W. P. Carey Inc., will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WPC

. The conversion to a REIT is subject to the approval of W. P. Carey shareholders and the merger is subject to approval of both the shareholders of W. P. Carey and the stockholders of CPA®:15. Following the merger, W. P. Carey Inc. is expected to have a total equity market capitalization of approximately $3 billion, total market capitalization of $5 billion and a portfolio of 43 million square feet of corporate real estate leased to 135 companies around the world. W. P. Carey Inc. will continue to manage the firm's Corporate Property Associates (CPA®) series of publicly held, non-traded REITs. The proposed merger is expected to be accretive to both AFFO per share and CAD per share for W. P. Carey. W. P. Carey currently anticipates that, following the transactions, the new REIT will increase its annual dividend to $2.60 per share to maintain compliance with REIT tax requirements.