REFinBlog

Editor: David Reiss
Cornell Law School

April 26, 2013

Empire State of IPO

By David Reiss

Bloomberg interviewed me and others about the litigation over the proposed IPO for the Empire State Realty Trust Inc. (which would include the Empire State Building and a few other properties):

A 15-month effort to take New York’s Empire State Building public is approaching a crucial ruling in a legal challenge by investors who oppose the deal put together by the family that controls the iconic skyscraper.

On April 29, New York State Supreme Court Justice O. Peter Sherwood may decide whether unit-holders who object to the transaction can be bought out for $100 a share, as proposed in the plan. He previously said he could throw out the votes the Malkin family has already received approving the plan if he determines the provision is illegal. Sherwood is also set to hold a hearing on a $55 million class-action settlement that is opposed by some of the tower’s more than 2,800-plus investors.

“This represents a kind of watershed moment for the case,” David Reiss, a professor of real estate finance law at Brooklyn Law School, said in an interview.

The rest of the story is here.

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