Equity Office’s Purchase of Spieker Completed

Equity Office Properties Trust’s purchase of Spieker Properties Inc., believed to be the biggest sale ever in the U.S. real estate business, was completed Monday after shareholders approved the deal.

The acquisition for $5.1 billion in cash and stock plus $2.1 billion in debt completes an agreement that was announced in February. Equity Office, which will operate from its Chicago headquarters, now owns 670 office buildings totaling 125 million square feet nationwide.

Equity Office, which is the nation’s largest publicly traded owner of office buildings, also acquired Spieker’s industrial portfolio of 12.2 million square feet and development properties of nearly 1 million square feet. Spieker, a real estate investment trust, was based in Menlo Park.

Under terms of the merger agreement, Spieker common shareholders will receive $13.50 in cash and 1.49586 Equity Office common shares for each outstanding share of Spieker common stock. Equity’s stock closed Monday at $31.74, up 11 cents on the New York Stock Exchange.