Whitestone REIT Adopts Short-Term Shareholder Rights Plan

HOUSTON, May 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Whitestone REIT (NYSE: WSR) (“Whitestone” or the “Company”) announced today that its Board of Trustees (the “Board”) has approved a short-term shareholder rights plan (the “Plan”) to protect the long-term interests of the Company and its shareholders. The Board has adopted the Plan at this time due to the substantial volatility in the market generally, and in trading of the Company’s common shares of beneficial interest (the “Common Shares”), that has resulted from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The adoption of the Plan by the Board is intended to allow the Company to realize the long-term value of the Company’s assets by protecting the Company from actions of third parties that the Board determines are not in the best interest of the Company and its shareholders.  Given the current unprecedented environment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the importance of maintaining focus on the strength of the Company’s business, the Board believes that adopting the Plan is in the best interests of the Company and its shareholders and will contribute to the preservation of the Company’s long-term value for its shareholders.

The Plan is similar to plans adopted by other public companies, and is intended to promote the fair and equal treatment of all shareholders by guarding against opportunistic efforts to capitalize on recent macroeconomic conditions, including open market accumulations or other tactics, aimed at gaining control of the Company without paying an appropriate control premium to deliver sufficient value for all Company shareholders. Similar to plans adopted recently by other public companies, the Plan is designed to reduce the likelihood that any person or group would gain control of the Company through open market accumulation of shares by imposing significant penalties upon any person or group that acquires 5% or more of the outstanding Common Shares (20% or more with respect to certain passive institutional investors). The Plan is not intended to prevent or interfere with any action that the Board determines to be in the best interest of the Company and is designed to position the Board to fulfill its duties on behalf of all shareholders by ensuring that the Board has sufficient time to make informed judgments about any takeover attempts and to encourage anyone seeking to gain a controlling interest in the Company to negotiate prior to attempting a takeover. The Plan has not been adopted in response to any specific takeover bid or other proposal to acquire control of the Company.