2ND Blackstone shareholders accept Blackstone offer

dpa German Press Agency Published: Wednesday February 7, 2007

Washington- It's official. The shareholders of the
country's largest real estate firm, Equity Office Properties Trust,
Wednesday accepted a buyout by Blackstone Group LP at a specially-
called meeting in Chicago.
EOP said the vote was a clear majority for the 39-billion-dollar
offer.

Blackstone had already emerged the victor of the six-month bidding
war earlier Wednesday when Vornado withdrew its competing bid before
the meeting.

Vornado Realty Trust dropped its higher offer because "the premium
it would have to pay to top Blackstone's latest bid" would not be in
shareholders' interest, the New York-based company said in a
statement.

The company owns about 540 office properties from New York to Los
Angeles.

Vornado's offer included cash and stocks, but critics said it
would have added considerable time and risk to completing the deal.
A last minute boost in Vornado's offer on Tuesday however forced
Blackstone to increase its offer to 55.50 dollars a share.
Blackstone's previous two offers were for 48 and 54 dollars.

The multi-billion-dollar, months-long duel pitted Steven Roth, 65,
who built Vornado from a chain of discount department stores into
Manhattan's biggest commercial landlord, against Stephen Schwarzman,
59, who has helped lead about 160 billion of leveraged buyouts since
co-founding Blackstone in 1985.

The sale comes amidst rising rents in the office rental market.
Blackstone's real estate group has made 181 acquisitions with a total
value of more than 43 billion dollars, including debt, since it was
started in 1992, Bloomberg financial news service reported.

One of Equity Office's most well known and largest properties is
1301 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, formerly known as the Credit Lyonnais
Building, near Rockefeller Center. Equity also holds long term leases
on San Francisco's landmark Ferry Building and Rowes Wharf in Boston,
which overlooks the harbour.

© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency