Equity Residential To Sell 72 Properties To Starwood Capital For $5.365 Bln

(RTTNews) - Equity Residential (EQR) Monday announced an agreement to sell 72 properties of 23,262 apartment units to Starwood Capital Group for $5.365 billion. The properties are in South Florida, Denver, Washington DC, Seattle and Inland Empire, CA.

Further, the company said it plans to use the majority of the proceeds from these sales to pay a special dividend to its shareholders of between $9.00 and $11.00 per share, payable during the second quarter of 2016. It will not impact its fourth quarter dividend, payable in January 2016.

The proceeds will also help to reduce aggregate indebtedness. The sale is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016.