Homburg Invest acquires Alexis Nihon REIT

On April 6, 2007, Homburg Invest Inc. (Homburg) indirectly acquired under a take-over bid 20,663,699 units of Alexis Nihon Real Estate Investment Trust (Alexis Nihon), representing approximately 70% of the issued and outstanding units, at a price of $18.60 in cash per unit. Together with the units owned by Homburg prior to the bid, Homburg and its affiliates now hold 25,938,238 units of Alexis Nihon, representing approximately 87% of the issued and outstanding units. Once all of the units are acquired by Homburg, the total value of the transaction, including the existing debt of Alexis Nihon, will be over $1 billion. This transaction represents the culmination of Alexis Nihon's sale process that began in December 2006 when Alexis Nihon agreed to enter into a combination agreement with Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust (Cominar) to combine the two REITs. The combination agreement was terminated in February 2007 when the board of directors of Alexis Nihon decided to change its recommendation and enter into a support agreement with Homburg. Concurrently with such termination, Homburg agreed with Cominar that, within 60 days of the successful completion of the bid, it would cause Alexis Nihon to sell certain of its industrial and office properties to Cominar for $592 million, including the assumption of debt related to those properties. Alexis Nihon was represented by Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP with a team that included Robert Paré, Marie-Josée Neveu, Gilles Leclerc, Daniel Picotte, Paul Martel, Diane Bertrand and Jean Michel Lapierre (corporate/securities), Claude Gendron, Lise Rochette, Chloé Archambault, Elias Retsinas, Isabelle Durand, Jean Philippe Gagné, Tasha Lackman and François Brissette (real estate), Gilles Carli and Thomas Copeland (tax), Douglas New (competition), Louis Bernier (labour) and Charles Kazaz (environment).