VEREIT


VEREIT, Inc., formerly known as American Realty Capital Properties Inc. or ARCP, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, is a commercial property real estate investment trust. The company owns, acquires, manages, leases, and finances a diversified portfolio of retail, restaurant, office, and industrial real estate assets. VEREIT serves customers in the United States. It is a publicly traded Maryland corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Operations

VEREIT, Inc., headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, formerly known as American Realty Capital Properties Inc. or ARCP, is a commercial property real estate investment trust. The company owns, acquires, manages, leases, and finances a diversified portfolio of retail, restaurant, office, and industrial real estate assets. VEREIT serves customers in the United States. It is a publicly traded Maryland corporation listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
In July 2019, VEREIT had 4,000 properties in its portfolio, consisting of. It had an equity value of $8.8 billion, with properties in 49 of the 50 US states.

History

VEREIT was founded in 2010 by Nicholas Schorsch.
In October 2013, the company agreed to purchase Cole Real Estate Investments Inc for $7.2 billion to create the largest US net-leased REIT, and the 14th-largest US publicly traded REIT.
In October 2014, the company admitted to an accounting error of $23 million, leading to significant sales of the company's stock and a drop in its value by $3 billion. The company fired Chief Financial Officer Brian Block after an audit committee investigation, and said that financial information in its 2013 10-K and Q1 and Q2 2014 quarterly reports "should no longer be relied upon." Lawsuits followed, with investors claiming ARCP had misstated financials in order to inflate financial results. In December Schorsch resigned as Chairman.

Class action

In September 2019, VEREIT entered into agreements to settle pending class action litigation against it regarding among other things alleged violations of Section 11 of the 1933 Act, at a cost to VEREIT of $765.5 million. Certain defendants agreed to pay $1.025 billion, consisting of $738.5 million from the company, $225 million from the company's former external manager and its principals, $12.5 million from the company's former CFO Brian Block who had been found guilty of securities fraud in 2017 and sentenced to 18 months in prison, and $49 million from the company's former auditor Grant Thornton.