NorthStar Realty Europe (NRE) announced last night that following a strategic review it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with AXA Investment Managers (AXAHY) - Real Assets, acting on behalf of a client, for the acquisition of all of the outstanding shares of common stock of the company.

The estimated per share merger consideration of $17.03 per share is based on the three-month forward foreign exchange rates and represents a 16.4% premium to the company's unaffected closing stock price of $14.63 on November 6, 2018, the last reporting day before NRE announced its strategic review process. Under the terms of the merger agreement, NRE stockholders will receive in cash at closing, for each share of common stock, $1.68 plus the U.S. Dollar equivalent of EUR 9.26 and GBP 3.82, representing an estimated per share merger consideration of $17.03 based on three month forward foreign exchange rates. This reflects the geographic location of assets across the U.K., France, and Germany.

Based on spot foreign exchange rates of 1.1290 EUR/USD and 1.2595 GBP/USD as of July 2, estimated per share merger consideration is $16.95 per share. The closing is expected to occur in Q4 of 2019, subject to satisfaction of all closing conditions.

Prior to closing, NRE expects to pay its final quarterly dividend of 15c per share in August 2019.