RAIT Acquiring Taberna

RAIT Investment Trust, a Philadelphia-based commercial real estate lender, is acquiring Taberna Realty Finance Trust, a private Philadelphia CRE lender, for 0.5389 of a RAIT share per Taberna common share.Taberna -- whose chairman and chief executive officer, Daniel G. Cohen, is the son of RAIT chairman and CEO Betsy Z. Cohen -- will become a subsidiary of RAIT. The exchange ratio is based upon the relative book value of the companies, RAIT said. Taberna is a provider of long-term subordinated debt and trust preferred securities financing. RAIT provides structured financing and also acquires real estate for its own account. Ms. Cohen said the combined company would meet the needs of real estate companies for both secured and unsecured structured finance. And Mr. Cohen said they expect to combine Taberna's collateralized debt obligation funding capacity with RAIT's origination platform. The combined company will continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange and have total shareholders' equity of about $1.2 billion, with RAIT shareholders owning about 54% of the equity, RAIT reported. Ms. Cohen will be chairman and Mr. Cohen will be CEO of the combined company. The companies, both real estate investment trusts, can be found online at http://www.raitinvestmenttrust.com and http://www.tabernacapital.com.