Vornado Completes Spinoff Of Urban Edge Properties And Will Remain in S&P 500; Spin Joining Midcap 400

Vornado Realty Trust (VNO) completed the spinoff of its strip mall business, Urban Edge Properties, after the close yesterday. As a reminder, Vornado shareholders should have received 1 share of Urban Edge for every 2 shares of VNO owned.

Vornado is currently a member of the S&P 500 index and will remain so post spinoff. Urban Edge, which will trade on the NYSE under the ticker ‘UE’, will end up joining the S&P Midcap 400 and also be a part of the Retail REIT sub-industry index. Urban Edge’s entry will boot Astoria Financial Group (AF) down to the S&P Smallcap 600 and Ntelos Holdings (NTLS) will get totally ejected from the index. 2014 was a terrible year for Ntelos (which actually spun out its wireline business, Lumos, in 2011) for a number of reasons including the renegotiation of a key contract with Sprint (S) and also a change in strategic focus.

There is some possibility of forced selling here as S&P 500 index funds and the like might be forced to dump their shares of Urban Edge indiscriminately. It’s worth keeping an eye out for an attractive entry point if one thinks UE is a good investment.

Disclosure: Author holds no position in any stock mentioned.