WP Carey completes $272 million in sale leasebacks.

Investment firm W. P. Carey & Co. LLC and its affiliated publicly held, non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs) announced that they have completed a record $272 million in sale-leaseback financing transactions for the period ended March 31, up from $117 million for the comparable period in 2002. This follows W. P. Carey's record year in 2002 when it completed more than $1 billion in build-to-suit and sale leaseback financing transactions.

Gordon F. DuGan, president and co-chief executive Officer of W. P. Carey, said, "As a result of the hard work of our Acquisitions Department to find and close transactions, aided by the desire of corporations to raise capital outside of the traditional capital markets, W. P. Carey experienced its best first quarter of acquisitions in its 30-year history. We believe that as corporate America continues to realize the advantages of the sale-leaseback as a way to grow and improve their businesses, we will remain very active as we seek to meet their financing needs."

Sale-leaseback financing effectively converts a company's bricks and mortar into working capital. In a typical sale-leaseback transaction, W. P. Carey, or an affiliate, acquires a property and leases it back to the tenant-company on a triple net long-term basis. The company preserves operational control of its property and benefits from the immediate access to capital, which can be used to reduce debt, fund critical corporate initiatives, transition out of a synthetic lease or construct a new facility.

Among some of the companies that completed sale-leaseback transactions during the first quarter were: Blackstone Inc., one of the country's largest independently owned prepaid marketing and distribution companies; Insulated Structures Limited Group, a leading operator and developer of cold-storage facilities in England; Polar Plastics, one of the leading manufacturers and distributor of disposable plastic ware in the U.S. and Canada; Starmark Holdings LLC, the fourth largest health club operator in the country; and Waddington North America, Inc., a leading producer of plastic disposable tableware products.