REIT Taking Home $50 Million from Stock Offer

RAIT Financial Trust, a real estate investment trust which provides debt financing for commercial properties, has priced a public offering of 9 million shares of common stock at $5.75 per share. The company has granted the deal’s underwriters the ability to purchase an additional 1.35 million shares to cover over-allotments.

The pricing was $0.23 below the Monday closing price of $5.98 per share. The stock opened Tuesday morning at $5.59 per share and has moved further south in heavy trading. Volume through 11:30 a.m. was 4.6 million shares traded, while the normal average daily volume for the past three month is just 316,503, according to Yahoo! Finance.

Last week, NorthStar Realty Finance, a REIT which also provides financing for commercial properties, priced an offering $0.24 below its previous day’s close and investors also started selling its shares at levels higher than normal.

Deutsche Bank Securities and Barclays are acting as the joint book-running managers of the offering.

The company intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to make investments relating to its business and for general corporate purposes.