AZL ex-dividend on 1/3 (7%, special)
Arizona Land Income, a REIT, will pay a special dividend of $1.00 on January 26 to holders as of Wednesday, January 3. That’s 7.2% of the share price of $13.900. This was preannounced as part of the Oct 4 $570m acquisition of the West Coast office portfolio of the Shidler Group. The deal will transform AZL into a West Coast office REIT under the name Pacific Office Properties Trust. What was not preannounced though is that the special dividend will be in lieu of both fourth quarter 2006 and first quarter 2007 quarterly dividend payments. This, couple with a disappointing Q3, will put pressure on the stock in the short term. Focus on the cool down.