Regency Offers Common Stock

Regency Centers Corporation (REG - Analyst Report), a real estate investment trust (REIT) engaged in owning and developing grocery anchored retail shopping centers in the U.S., has recently issued 9.2 million common shares, including 1.2 million shares to cover over-allotments by the underwriters. Affiliates of JPMorgan (JPM - Analyst Report) and Wells Fargo (WFC - Analyst Report) acted as joint book-running managers for the public offering.
 
The shares were issued at $30.75 each. Regency will utilize the bulk of the proceeds from the equity offering to repay or refinance maturing 2010 debt. At the end of the third quarter of 2009, the company had $5.4 million of debt maturing in 2010.
 
Regency has, however, reiterated its previous full year 2010 earnings guidance and stressed that the equity offering would not hamper the earnings expectations. The company expects recurring FFO (funds from operations) in 2010 in the range of $2.11 to $2.31 per share. Fund from operations, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, is obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income.
 
Regency seeks to own assets in high income in-fill markets that are tenanted by market-dominant grocers, category-leading anchors, specialty retailers and restaurants. The average household income in the markets in which Regency has a significant presence is over $90,000, nearly 30% higher than the national average. As of Sep 30, 2009, the company owned or had interests in 409 retail properties, including properties held in joint ventures, spanning 54.1 million square feet.

Read the full analyst report on REG

Read the full analyst report on JPM

Read the full analyst report on WFC