Nick Schorsch and his management team at American Realty Capital Properties Inc. (ARCP) did some crowing Monday in a shareholder conference call highlighting the  REIT’s completed purchase of Cole Real Estate Investments.
 
The deal closed last Friday, two months early, making it the largest publicly traded REIT in the net-lease space.
 
“We will be a REIT you want to own,” Schorsch said.
 
ARCP officials said refinancing had lowered debt and interest costs. And as a result of more Cole shareholders taking stock instead of cash than was expected, American Realty Capital Partners has a larger war chest to do deals, officials said.
 
The REIT expects to do $2.5 billion to $3 billion in real estate acquisitions this year. It  has $20 billion worth of properties.

Schorsch made a run for Cole last year, but was rebuffed, sparking a war of words with Cole management. Ultimately, the deal got done after Cole went public.

Now the management teams are singing something like "Kumbaya." 
 
“We have … agreements with nearly 70 top guys” at Cole to stay on, ARCP President David Kay said on the call. 
 
ARCP management has offices in Cole’s home base of Phoenix and is spending “a significant amount of time there,” he said.
 
An equity incentive plan is in the works as well, Kay added. “There’s been quite a buzz about it.”
 
“The [American Realty Capital Properties] name is on the building and the [company] screensavers are up and running” on the computers, he said.

Schorsch, who is also the co-founder and chief executive of non-traded REIT sponsor American Realty Capital and executive chairman of RCS Capital Corp., which has been feverishly buying up independent broker-dealers, told investors he is pulling back from day-to-day management of the public REIT, which is now self-managed.

“The goal is to move out of the day to day and focus on strategic aspects of the business,” Schorsch said.
 
In November, Schorsch brought in Kay, a real estate industry executive, as president.
 
On another topic, Schorsch said he supported a Finra rule proposal to improve transparency of non-traded REIT values.
 
Finra this month said it was filing the proposal with the SEC. 
 
The rule change would eliminate a requirement for brokerage firms to use REIT values on customer statements that are published by program sponsors. Instead, brokerage firms could show the security as non-priced, or show a number from an independent valuation or a per-share value based on the net amount available for investment. 
 
The rule change would end the practice of showing the typical $10 per share offering price, which is before commissions and other expenses are deducted.
 
“We’re a big proponent” of the proposal, Schorsch said. The change would initially cause “some educational consternation in the industry” as people adjust, he said.
 
But it could actually spur sales of direct-participation programs, Schorsch said, especially among wirehouse brokers and RIAs “because people will be more comfortable with the product.”