ARCP delays third-quarter earnings report

American Realty Capital Properties Inc., Nicholas Schorsch's beleaguered publicly traded real estate investment trust, said Friday that it will report its third-quarter earnings by Jan. 5. ARCP was expected to report third-quarter earnings at the end of October. The delay comes two and a half weeks after the REIT revealed a $23 million accounting error in the first half of the year that was intentionally uncorrected. Mr. Schorsch, who is chairman of ARCP, also was its chief executive until Oct. 1. ARCP got approval from its creditors to delay reporting its financial statements, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company “received a consent, waiver and amendment from its lenders on its unsecured credit facility for an extension regarding the delivery of its 2014 third quarter financial statements until January 5, 2015.” The company may report before that date, said spokesman Andy Merrill. As part of the waiver, ARCP said it had chosen to permanently reduce it maximum amount of debt to $4 billion from $4.65 billion. “The right-sizing of the line enables us to meet our liquidity needs now, as well as our future capital needs, while reducing our credit facility fees,” ARCP's CEO, David Kay, said in a statement. The company's stock price has declined almost 30% since the accounting error was revealed. ARCP shares were trading at $8.69 Friday afternoon. ARCP owns the manager and sponsor of Cole-branded nontraded REITs. Several broker-dealers, clearing firms and custodians have temporarily halted the sale of Cole products since the accounting mistakes at ARCP came to light.