Maguire’s Timing May Lead to Trouble

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Investors in Maguire Properties Inc. are hoping St. Patrick’s Day brought this real-estate investment trust some Irish gold, because over the past few weeks all they have seen is bad luck, the Wall Street Journal reports.


Late last year, Maguire put itself on the auction block, hoping to take advantage of the high prices that private-equity firms were paying for REITs. But even as other REITs sold at a feverish pace, Maguire couldn’t find any takers at its price. In February, it conceded as much, saying it was better off “continuing to run the company publicly.”


Now more bad news. On Feb. 20, Maguire said it would pay $3 billion to buy 24 buildings that Blackstone Group acquired in its recent deal for Equity Office Properties Trust. The buildings were in Maguire’s backyard of Southern California, one of the country’s strongest office markets.


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