REIT files for $1.5 billion IPO

American Realty Capital Trust Inc., under chief executive Nicholas Schorsch, plans to sell up to 150 million common shares, raising as much as $1.5 billion, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The new company, based in Jenkintown, Pa., will do business as a privately operated non-traded REIT. Mr. Schorsch, formerly the chief executive of American Financial Realty Trust, also of Jenkintown, resigned from that company in August 2006. American Financial Realty went public in June 2003 and raised more than $800 million in what was then described as the REIT industry's second-biggest IPO, according to the SEC filing. American Financial Realty, which invested in commercial buildings of 10,000 to 30,000 square feet in size, saw its stock gain 1.4% in 2004, fall 19.9% in 2005 and rise 3.7% in 2006, according to a MarketWatch report. The REIT has fallen 27.4% in 2007 and is vastly underperforming the broad stock market and REITs in general.