Hines REIT Completes $1.162 Billion Sale of Office Assets

Hines Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc. (“Hines REIT") announced today it has completed the sale of seven West Coast office assets to a Blackstone affiliate for $1.162 billion. Shareholders approved the board-recommended plan to liquidate and dissolve Hines REIT during its annual shareholder meeting on November 7. Hines REIT was the first of three non-traded REITs sponsored by the international real estate firm.

So far in 2016, Hines REIT has sold 22 of its directly owned properties for $2.3 billion, before transaction costs and retirement of debt. In addition, during that same time period, the Hines US Core Office Fund LP, in which Hines REIT owns a 28.8% LP interest, sold four of its properties for $762.7 million, before transaction costs and retirement of debt. Hines REIT is in the process of liquidating the few remaining assets it owns directly and through its interest in Hines US Core Office Fund LP and currently anticipates those sales will be completed before year end.

“The sale of seven of our West Coast office assets to a Blackstone affiliate was a significant and positive transaction and a result of our focus on maximizing the assets’ appeal to the institutional market and providing Hines REIT’s investors with an attractive outcome,” said Sherri Schugart, President and CEO of Hines REIT. “The vast majority of our investors will have experienced a positive return on their investment in Hines REIT given the cash distributions we have paid through the years combined with capital we expect to return to investors as a result of this liquidity event and capital we have returned in previous years. We are pleased with this performance relative to the performance of many of our peers and other investment alternatives that had comparable investment strategies and timing, especially considering the impact of the financial crisis and economic downturn during 2008 and 2009.”

Hines REIT currently expects to initially distribute a significant portion of the net proceeds from the completed asset sales to its shareholders before the end of this year and to have one or more additional liquidating distributions to its shareholders during the first quarter of 2017, after all remaining business activities are concluded. Hines REIT presently expects that the aggregate liquidating distributions to its shareholders will be within the range of $6.35 to $6.65 per share, as disclosed when Hines REIT announced the plan of liquidation. In addition to these liquidating distributions, Hines REIT previously paid special distributions totaling $1.01 per share from July 2011 through April 2013, which were designated as a partial return of invested capital to shareholders. For additional information regarding the voting results from our annual meeting, please see Hines REIT’s 8-K filing dated November 7, 2016.