Whiterock REIT Completes $10 Million Public Equity Offering

TSX- WRK.UN

TORONTO, May 12 /CNW/ - Whiterock Real Estate Investment Trust ("Whiterock") announced today that it has closed its previously-announced public equity offering consisting of 680,000 trust units at a price of $14.80 per unit, for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $10 million.

The offering was completed on a bought deal basis, through a syndicate of underwriters led by TD Securities Inc. and including CIBC World Markets Inc., Canaccord Capital Corporation, National Bank Financial Inc., Scotia Capital Inc. and Dundee Securities Corporation.

Whiterock intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to: reduce its overall indebtedness through the repayment of long-term debt, to fund future acquisitions, and/or for general trust purposes. Pending the deployment of the net proceeds for such purposes, Whiterock will use the net proceeds to reduce indebtedness under the credit facility of its wholly-owned subsidiary WR Trust with an affiliate of TD Securities Inc.

About Whiterock

Whiterock's existing portfolio consists of 43 properties totalling 3.2 million square feet, located in 13 primary and secondary markets across Canada, including Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, the Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax. The portfolio's average lease term is approximately 8 years, with approximately 59% leased to government or investment grade firms. At the close of market on May 11, 2009, Whiterock's units provided a yield of 22.9%.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to financial performance, sale-leaseback opportunities, proposed acquisitions and equity or debt offerings, and the intended use of proceeds therefor, new markets for growth, financial position, comparable commercial REITs, proposed acquisitions and other statements concerning Whiterock's objectives, its strategies to achieve those objectives, as well as statements with respect to management's belief, plans, estimates, and intentions, and similar statements concerning anticipated future events, results, circumstances, performance or expectations and other matters which are not historical facts. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved", and the negative forms thereof. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management. All forward-looking statements in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements.

Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future events or performance and, by their nature, are based on Whiterock's estimates and assumptions, which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Whiterock to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks include but are not limited to: the risks related to the market for Whiterock's securities, the general risks associated with real property ownership and acquisition, unexpected costs or liabilities related to acquisitions, that future accretive acquisition opportunities or joint venture opportunities may not be identified and/or completed by Whiterock, lease maturities, risk management, liquidity and general market conditions, an inability of Whiterock to obtain debt financing on favourable terms or at all, credit risk, competition, general uninsured losses, interest rate fluctuations, environmental matters, restrictions on redemptions of outstanding Whiterock securities, lack of availability of growth opportunities, diversification, over-reliance on anchor or single tenant properties, potential Unitholder liability, potential conflicts of interest, the availability of sufficient cash flow, fluctuations in cash distributions, the market price of Whiterock's units, the failure to obtain additional financing, dilution, an unforeseen departure of key personnel, unanticipated adverse changes in legislation, failure to obtain or maintain mutual fund trust status and delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing as well as those additional factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in Whiterock's Annual Information Form which can be obtained at www.sedar.com. In particular, but without limitation, there can be no assurance that Whiterock will be to able to continue to increase its FFO and AFFO. Material factors or assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making an estimate set out in the forward-looking information may include, but are not limited to: a less robust leasing environment than has been seen for the last several years; relatively stable interest costs; an increase in acquisition capitalization rates and more limited but available access to equity and debt capital markets to fund, at acceptable costs, Whiterock's future growth plans, and to enable Whiterock to refinance its debts as they mature. Except as required by law, Whiterock does not undertake, and specifically disclaims, any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

    
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Contacts

www.whiterockreit.ca

Jason Underwood
(416) 907-4861

Paul Simcox
(416) 907-4862

Frank Bucys
CFO
(416) 907-4864