MONTREAL, March 4 /CNW Telbec/ - The trustees of BTB Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX-V: BTB.UN) ("BTB") are proud to announce that, after the conclusion of the due diligence process, it has now closed the acquisition of two office properties located in Sherbrooke, province of Quebec for a purchase price of $6.3M excluding closing costs. With the conclusion of this acquisition, BTB has now closed over $190M worth of properties which is equivalent to over 1.932M square feet of leasable area. BTB has previously announced conditional agreements to acquire other commercial real estate properties.
Place Jacques-Cartier - 1645 and 1640-1650 King Street West/30 Marchant
Street, Sherbrooke, Quebec
This acquisition consists of two office buildings that face each other on one of the City of Sherbrooke and surrounding area's major commercial arteries and busiest streets with high traffic flow. These buildings comprise 60,631 square feet of leasable area with a parking lot that offers 166 spaces. The buildings are leased to prime tenants, including the Quebec Government and several professional firms such as, notaries, attorneys, financial consultants, labour union others.
This acquisition is consistent with management's strategy of acquiring properties which are geographically well-located and have the potential to increase revenues as stated by Mr. Michel Leonard, President and Chief Executive Officer of BTB.
As part of this transaction, compensation will be paid to AMTB Management Inc. (a corporation controlled by Mr. Leonard), which provides the services of Messrs. Michel Leonard and Peter Polatos to BTB. Messrs. Leonard and Polatos are trustees of BTB. They have disclosed their interest in the transaction and did not vote on the resolution of the trustees approving it. Its review and approval was made in the context of an accepted and generally used procedure in similar circumstances.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Although the trustees of BTB believe that the expectations represented in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Some of the factors and risks which could affect future results and could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements contained herein include the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, governmental regulation, environmental risks, competition from other industry participants, stock market volatility, the ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources and the risk of fluctuation and variation in actual operating results, which variation may be material. A full description of these risks and uncertainties can be found in BTB's Annual Information Form dated January 16, 2008 which is available electronically at www.sedar.com.
The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements included herein are made as of the date hereof and BTB does not undertake any obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise.
The TSX Venture Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the
transactions and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of
this press release. The TSX Venture Exchange does not accept
responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.
