Empire State Realty Prices IPO At $13 Per Share, Low End Of Range

(RTTNews) - Empire State Realty Trust Inc., owner of the iconic Empire State Building in New York City, said Tuesday that it has priced its initial public offering of 71.50 million shares of its Class A common stock at $13 per share. The pricing is at the low end of the company's expected range of $13 to $15 per share and raised $929.5 million.

The New York-based real estate investment trust said it expects net proceeds from the offering to be about $754.4 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses, prior to any exercise of the underwriters' over-allotment option.

Empire State Realty plans to use the net proceeds from the offering primarily to fund certain formation transaction costs and fees as well as to make cash payments to holders of interests in the existing entities, including the Helmsley estate.

The company has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 10.725 million shares of Class A common stock from the company at the initial public offering price, less the underwriting discount.

Empire State Realty's Class A common stock are expected to begin trading on Wednesday, October 2, 2013, on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "ESRT". The offering is expected to close on October 7, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

Empire State Realty Trust was formed to continue and expand the commercial real estate business of Malkin Holdings LLC and its affiliates.

The company is a self-administered real estate investment trust or REIT, that owns, manages, operates, acquires and repositions office and retail properties in Manhattan and the greater New York metropolitan area. After completion of the IPO and related formation transactions, the company owns about 8.4 million rentable square feet.

Empire State Realty's seven office properties are located in midtown Manhattan, including the Empire State Building. The company's other office properties are located in Fairfield County, Connecticut and Westchester County, New York. The company's portfolio also includes six retail properties representing about 205,000 rentable square feet located in Manhattan and in the city center of Westport, Connecticut.

The Empire State Building is a 102-story skyscraper, with a roof height of 1,250 feet or 381 meters. It stood as the world's tallest building for nearly 40 years from its completion in 1931, until it lost the title to the World Trade Center's North Tower in 1971. The building comprises 2.70 million rentable square feet of office space and 167,788 rentable square feet of retail space.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. and BofA Merrill Lynch acted as joint book-running managers for the offering.