Latham & Watkins Advises Realty Income in US$63 Billion Merger With Spirit Realty Capital

Realty Income Corporation (Realty Income, NYSE: O), The Monthly Dividend Company®, and Spirit Realty Capital, Inc. (Spirit, NYSE: SRC), have announced that the two companies have entered into a definitive merger agreement by which Realty Income will acquire Spirit in an all-stock transaction valued at an enterprise value of approximately US$9.3 billion. The leverage-neutral transaction is expected to deliver over 2.5% accretion to Realty Income’s annualized Adjusted Funds from Operations (AFFO) per share. The merger, once completed, will result in an enterprise value of approximately US$63 billion for the combined company, enhancing Realty Income’s size, scale, and diversification to expand its runway for future growth.

Latham & Watkins LLP represents Realty Income in the merger and spin-off transaction with a corporate deal team led by New York/Orange County partner Charles Ruck, Orange County partner Darren Guttenberg, and Los Angeles partner Bradley Helms, with associates Mekbeb Hagos, Caitlin Nguyen, Amy Lutfi, Azzam Chaudhry, Luca Marquard, Danny Del Giorno, and Lexi Zintel. Advice was also provided on tax matters by Los Angeles partner Ana O'Brien and counsel William Kessler; on benefits and compensation matters by Bay Area partner Maj Vaseghi, with associates Megan Ampe and Nimra Syed; on real estate matters by Century City partner Meghan Cocci and New York partner Betsy Jaffe, with associate Kim Legate Ford; on environment, land, and resources matters by Orange County partner Christopher Norton, with associate Kevin Homrighausen; on finance matters by Los Angeles partner Kenneth Askin and New York partner Yvette Valdez, with associate Naffie Lamin; on technology matters by Orange County counsel David Kuiper; on capital markets matters by New York partner Andrew Baker, with associate Hana Nah.