Real estate trust to offer 5m shares

Senior Housing Properties Trust, a Newton real estate investment trust, said it will offer 5 million shares in a public offering.

Net proceeds will be used to repay outstanding borrowing balances.

UBS Investment Bank and Merrill Lynch & Co. are the joint book-running managers for the offering.

Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets, and Wachovia Securities are the joint lead managers.

Ferris, Baker Watts Inc., Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc., Oppenheimer & Co., Raymond James, and Stifel Nicolaus are co-managing underwriters. They will be granted a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 750,000 shares to cover allotments.

The company has about 71.8 million outstanding shares.
(AP)