DLA Piper represented W. P. Carey Inc., a publicly traded REIT,  in a merger with CPA:16, its publicly held, non-traded REIT affiliate, in a transaction valued at approximately US$4 billion.

W. P. Carey Inc. provides long-term sale-leaseback and build-to-suit financing for companies worldwide and owns and manages an investment portfolio totaling approximately $15.2 billion. Following the merger, which is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, the combined company is expected to have an equity market capitalization of approximately $6.5 billion and a total enterprise value of approximately $10.1 billion. The combined portfolio will consist of more than 700 properties with 86 million square feet of corporate real estate leased to 231 companies around the world.

The DLA Piper team was led by New York partner Christopher Giordano, who also played a significant role in arranging W.P. Carey’s reorganization into a REIT in October 2012, and included Robert LeDuc, Sanjay Shirodkar and Jon Venick.