JER Stages $150 Million Public Stock Offering

JER Investors Trust Inc., McLean, Va., is making a $150 million public offering of 10,000,000 shares of its class A common stock, a new class of common stock. Each share of class A common stock represents rights equal to those of 15 shares of JER's existing common stock. The company expects to use the net proceeds of the offering primarily to invest in senior investment grade tranches of commercial mortgage-backed securities. It also intends to use approximately $15.7 million of the net proceeds to repurchase all of its outstanding trust preferred securities with an aggregate liquidation amount of $60.0 million. JMP Securities LLC is acting as book-running manager and Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. Inc. is acting as co-manager for the offering.