While we are not surprised, the vote on the merger of Diversified Healthcare Trust and Office Properties Income Trust, scheduled for this past August 30, has been postponed until September 6, even though “the polls remain open.” With the three major proxy firms weighing in against the merger, as well as a holder of 9.8% of DHC stock, we assume the managements of the two merging firms realized they did not have the votes.
We stated last week that we thought something fishy was going on, and we didn’t like the smell. There are just too many conflicts of interest, but we do not know what could happen between August 30 and this coming September 6, two days after the Labor Day holiday, to change the outcome of the vote. We also don’t know how many other shareholders dissident investor Flat Footed LLC has been able to convince to vote no. Insiders at DHC and OPI control a good number of their respective shares. Stay tuned.
