Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell full ownership of Archstone Enterprise LP, its single largest asset, to Equity Residential (EQR) and AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (AVB) for cash and stock with an aggregate value of approximately $6.5 billion.
Lehman Brothers and its affiliates including Lehman Commercial Paper Inc. will receive $2.685 billion in cash as well as 34.47 million shares of EQR common stock and 14.89 million shares of AVB common stock which, on a combined basis and using last Friday's closing prices, have a value of approximately $3.8 billion.
As a result, LBHI and its affiliates will own 9.8% of EQR and 13.2% of AVB based on the shares of each issued as consideration. The purchasers have up to 120 days to close the transaction; the transaction is not subject to a vote of the shareholders of either EQR or AVB and does not have any financing contingencies.
The $6.5 billion transaction price represents a significant return on Lehman's purchase of the remaining 53.6% interest it did not own. In addition, the $2.7 billion cash component of the sale consideration substantially returns the $3.0 billion investment made by Lehman in the purchase transaction.
For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com
Business News
May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.