Realty Income To Buy 454 Single-tenant Retail Properties For About $1.25 Bln

(RTTNews) - Realty Income Corp. (O) Tuesday said it agreed to buy 454 single-tenant retail properties from CIM Real Estate Finance Trust Inc. for about $1.25 billion in cash.

The transaction is expected to close in various tranches with the acquisition of most of the properties in the portfolio expected to close in 2019, the company said in a statement.

"This transaction is additive to our existing high-quality real estate portfolio and is immediately accretive on a leverage-neutral basis. We believe this portfolio acquisition demonstrates the importance of size and scale as a competitive advantage in the net lease industry," said Sumit Roy, Realty Income's President & Chief Executive Officer.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Realty Income expects to assume existing mortgage debt totaling approximately $131 million at a weighted average interest rate of 4.5% and a weighted average remaining term to maturity of 5.3 years.

Looking forward to 2019, the company now expects adjusted FFO per share of $3.29 to $3.34 per share, up from previous forecast of $3.28 to $3.33 per share.