PRO Real Estate Investment Trust (PROREIT) will acquire Boulevard Industrial REIT in a friendly transaction, pending approval of the majority of Boulevard unit-holders. As set out in the plan of arrangement, PROREIT has offered $0.093 per Boulevard unit, representing a 43 per cent premium on the REIT’s closing price of $0.065 on July 30, 2015.

Boulevard already has 26 per cent of units, held by trustees, management and other investors, committed to the acquisition, which the trustees have unanimously endorsed. The REIT’s portfolio of three industrial buildings in Moncton, New Brunswick, would add to PROREIT’s wider holdings of 29 retail, office and industrial buildings, largely located in Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

PROREIT’s unit price closed at $2 on July 30, and the acquisition offers what Boulevard’s chief executive officer, Scott Hayes, typifies as “the potential for further price appreciation.”

“Once completed, the acquisition will add 236,692 square feet of gross leasable area to our portfolio, expanding our total gross leasble area by more than 10 per cent,” reports James Beckerleg, PROREIT’s president and chief executive officer. “PROREIT’s assets will surpass $200 million at the conclusion of this transaction.”