EXHIBIT 99.23
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AT THE TRUST
Robert G. Higgins Karen Dickelman
Vice President, General Counsel Investor Relations
312-683-5539 312 683-3671
[email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, October 25, 2000
BANYAN STRATEGIC REALTY TRUST
TARGETS PROPOSAL TO PURCHASE ALL ASSETS
CHICAGO, OCTOBER 25, 2000 - Banyan Strategic Realty Trust (Nasdaq:BSRTS)
today announced that its Board of Trustees has authorized the negotiation
of a contract with a potential purchaser of all of the Trust's real estate
assets. In February of 2000, Banyan formed a financial advisory committee
to evaluate strategic alternatives. As part of this process, the committee
retained CFC Advisory Services Limited Partnership, an affiliate of
Chicago-based Cohen Financial, to value Banyan's real estate assets and to
assist the committee in identifying and executing strategies that the Board
believes will maximize value while enhancing shareholder liquidity.
As previously disclosed, CFC completed its strategic analysis of the
portfolio and was subsequently authorized by the committee to market the
Trust's real estate portfolio to persons or entities interested primarily
in buying the Trust's properties in whole or in part. The Trust received
and evaluated a number of proposals from prospective purchasers. After
further discussions with CFC, and upon CFC's recommendation, the committee
concluded that shareholder value and liquidity could be best maximized and
enhanced by selling all of the Trust's real estate assets in a bulk
transaction to a single buyer, rather than individually or in discreet
groups over an extended period of time.
If the Trust is successful in negotiating and completing a sale of its real
estate assets, which it hopes to achieve by the end of the first calendar
quarter of 2001, the Trust expects to distribute the net proceeds to its
shareholders and to ultimately terminate the Trust pursuant to a plan of
liquidation. The committee estimates that based on the price indicated in
the proposal it has elected to pursue, and after paying or reserving for
all known liabilities and the projected costs of winding up the Trust, the
net proceeds available to shareholders would be approximately $6.20 per
share. Although the Trust is in the process of negotiating a contract,
there is no assurance that a contract or a transaction will be concluded or
that the Trust will realize the net proceeds per share estimated above.
The committee noted that a sale of the Trust's real estate assets in bulk
will, in its view, reflect a discount that it believes is reasonable from
that which may be achieved by selling the assets individually in a series
of transactions after taking into account the risks and costs inherent in
marketing the properties over an extended period of time.
The net proceeds that would be available for distribution to shareholders
after paying or providing for all of the Trust's liabilities, including the
cost of terminating the Trust, the tax treatment of these distributions and
the Trust's future financial statement presentation, will depend on a
number of factors. These factors include the gross selling price of the
assets, the timing of the adoption of a plan of liquidation, the time it
takes to close a sale and the costs associated with a sale and winding up
of the Trust. As a part of the process, the Trust intends to evaluate and
determine the amount and frequency of shareholder distributions during the
coming months. The Trust also confirmed its 12 cent per share third
quarter distribution announcement of October 16, 2000.
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Banyan Strategic Realty Trust is an equity Real Estate Investment Trust
(REIT) that owns primarily office and flex/industrial properties. These
properties are located in certain major metropolitan areas of the Midwest
and Southeastern United States, including Atlanta, Georgia and Chicago,
Illinois and smaller markets such as Huntsville, Alabama, Louisville,
Kentucky, Memphis, Tennessee, and Orlando, Florida. The Trust's current
portfolio consists of 27 properties totaling 3.5 million rentable square
feet. As of this date, the Trust has 14,238,161 shares of beneficial
interest outstanding.
Except for the historical information contained herein, certain matters
discussed in this release are forward-looking statements, the achievement
of which involve risks and uncertainties that are detailed from time to
time in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
including the report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999.
The "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and
Results of Operations" section was included in our Form 10-Q for the
quarter ended June 30, 2000 which was filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission on August 14, 2000. Without limitation the foregoing
words such as "anticipates", "expects", "intends", "plans", and similar
expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.
See Banyan's Website at http://www.banyanreit.com.
For further information regarding Banyan free of charge via fax,
dial 1-800-PRO-INFO and enter "BSRTS".
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