The board of trustees of Liberty Property Trust, headquartered in Malvern with Lehigh Valley offices in Bethlehem, has authorized the repurchasing of up to $250 million of outstanding common shares through Aug. 6, 2017.
Liberty is a major player in the Lehigh Valley, with millions of square feet of big-box industrial warehouse space that employ thousands of people.
Altogether, Liberty, which does business globally, has a 105-million-square-foot portfolio that includes more than 700 properties providing office, distribution and light manufacturing facilities to 1,700 tenants.
The company said the stock repurchases will be made in either the open market or in privately negotiated transactions.
“There continues to be tremendous demand for real estate as a direct investment, and Liberty expects to realize proceeds of as much as $625 million this year from property sales,” said Jeanne Ackerly Leonard, vice president, investor relations. “Having a share repurchase program authorized and in place gives us additional flexibility to use the proceeds of these sales in a manner that best benefits the company and our shareholders. For this reason, quite a few Real Estate Investment Trusts have recently initiated such programs.”
The timing, manner, price and amount of any repurchases will be determined by Liberty in its discretion and will be subject to economic and market conditions, stock price, applicable legal requirements and other factors. The authorization does not obligate it to acquire any particular amount of common shares, and the program may be suspended or discontinued at its discretion.
