Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and Clifford Chance have scored lead roles on a $10.5bn deal to create a self storage giant.
Wachtell Lipton is advising longtime client Public Storage – the largest US self-storage company by market capitalisation – on its $10.5bn acquisition of National Storage Affiliates, which is being counselled on the deal by Clifford Chance.
DLA Piper is also acting as real estate financing counsel to Public Storage on the all-stock deal, which will create a company with a market capitalisation of roughly $57bn overseeing square footage equivalent to a small city.
Wachtell Lipton’s team is led by Adam Emmerich, co-chair of the firm’s corporate department, and M&A partner Kyle Diamond. Emmerich has advised Public Storage on numerous large deals in the past, including its $6bn acquisition of Shurgard back in 2006 and its $2.2bn acquisition of Simply Self Storage from Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust in 2023.
Public Storage said the National Storage deal would increase its exposure to US markets that complemented its existing portfolio and were “poised for long-term growth”, including the Sun Belt region that stretches across the southern states.
The Clifford Chance team advising National Storage is led by M&A partners Chang-Do Gong and Robert Chung, both of whom have joined the firm in New York within the last two years from White & Case, alongside capital markets partner Andrew Epstein and real estate partner Jeanne Roig-Irwin.
Meanwhile, the DLA Piper effort is fielded by partner Amy Carbins, chair of the Washington DC real estate team, and New York-based partner Viktor Sapezhnikov, chair of public company M&A at the firm.
Under the terms of the agreement, holders of National Storage common shares and operating partnership units will receive 0.14 of a share of Public Storage common stock or partnership unit for each National Storage share or unit they own, representing a total consideration of $41.68 per share.
The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, ahead of which Public Storage and limited partners in National Storage’s operating partnership will form a joint venture consisting of 313 properties on National Storage’s operating platform comprising 19.6 million rentable square feet across 28 states and Puerto Rico, with an estimated value of approximately $3.3bn.
Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Eastdil Secured are serving as financial advisors to Public Storage on the deal, while Morgan Stanley is acting as exclusive financial advisor to National Storage Affiliates Trust.
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