BENTLEY FORBES CONTINUES TO RESTRUCTURE PORTFOLIO FOR GROWTH; SELLS TWO ASSETS IN TRANSACTIONS TOTALING $20 MILLION Firm Selling Smaller, Non-Core and Maturing Assets as it Expands Investment Focus to include Larger, Class A Properties; Sold Properties Include South Dakota Best Buy and Los Angeles Manufacturing Facility LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Nov. 5, 2003) – BENTLEYFORBES, the Los Angeles-based national real estate investment firm, recently completed the disposition of two properties in separate transactions totaling $20 million, announced C. Frederick Wehba II, president, BENTLEYFORBES. "As BENTLEYFORBES expands our portfolio of commercial properties, we will continue to review our holdings for maturing or non-core assets," said Wehba. " Once we identify these assets for disposition, we will use sale proceeds to fund further acquisitions. We are leveraging this strategy to streamline the structure of our portfolio, making room for acquisitions of larger, class A properties and portfolios of the same." According to Wehba, BENTLEYFORBES is positioned to double the value of its portfolio over the next two years to exceed $2.5 billion, with the expectation of completing approximately $500 million of new acquisitions by mid-year 2004. Wehba pointed to the firm’s recent $134 million acquisition of eight Sacramento-area class A office properties encompassing more than 700,000 square feet as an example of its new criteria for investment targets. Inline with the above described investment strategy, BENTLEYFORBES recently completed the following property sales: · The sale of a 200,000-square-foot manufacturing facility located at 5505 E. Olympic Boulevard in the city of Commerce. The property is fully leased to Gruma, the world’s leading producer of tortillas, for use in production of its Mission brand of tortillas. CDC Acquisitions, LLC, acquired the property in the transaction. · The sale of a 48,000-square-foot Best Buy retail facility located in the Western Mall at 2104 W. 41st Street in the city of Sioux Fallx, S.D. The facility is fully leased to Best Buy, a retailer of consumer electronics, home office equipment, entertainment software and appliances. EN South Dakota, LLC, acquired the property in the transaction. According to Chad Wehba, chief operating officer of BENTLEYFORBES, the firm is actively planning its growth strategy by "streamlining operations, adding senior executives experienced in investment, finance and portfolio management and expanding our relationships in the capital markets to include a wider scope of institutional lenders working with us to facilitate new transactions. Our access to significant internal and external capital, along with the subsequent need to broaden our investment criteria, is compelling us to refine our business practices as we move forward." |
