Columbia’s common stock was listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol “CXP” from October 10, 2013, to December 7, 2021. All historical Company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are available on www.SEC.gov.
On December 8, 2021, Columbia was acquired by funds managed by Pacific Investment Management Company LLC (collectively, “PIMCO”). Pursuant to the terms of this transaction, which was approved by Columbia’s stockholders at a Special Meeting of Stockholders held on December 2, 2021, PIMCO acquired all of the outstanding shares of Columbia common stock for $19.30 per share in cash. For income tax purposes, $2.17 of the $19.30 per share consideration was paid as a special dividend to stockholders of record as of December 7, 2021, and the remainder ($17.13 per share) was classified as sales proceeds.
When Columbia was acquired by PIMCO on December 8, 2021, each outstanding share of Columbia common stock was converted into the right to receive $19.30 per share in cash. A portion of this $19.30 per share payment was paid as a special dividend of $2.17 per share and will be reported to stockholders on the 2021 Form 1099-DIV, while the remainder was classified as sales proceeds of $17.13 per share and will be reported to stockholders on the 2021 Form 1099-B.
For information regarding the cost basis and tax treatment of the $19.30 payment, please see the questions on these topics further in this set of FAQs.
Following the closing of the transaction with PIMCO, Columbia became a private company and therefore no longer releases earnings information to the public. The Company’s last earnings release occurred on October 27, 2021.
Columbia’s common stock ceased trading on the NYSE on December 8, 2021, and therefore Columbia’s common stock can no longer be bought or sold on a public exchange.
Effective August 14, 2013, Columbia executed a four-for-one reverse stock split of the Company’s outstanding shares in preparation for its listing on the New York Stock Exchange in October 2013. Click here to read the Form 8-K Columbia filed with the SEC on August 7, 2013, regarding the reverse stock split.
The Company’s last quarterly cash dividend was paid in September 2021. As described above, a portion of the $19.30 per share paid to stockholders as part of PIMCO’s acquisition of Columbia was declared and classified as a special dividend for income tax purposes. This special dividend was not a separate payment and was distributed to stockholders together with the sales proceeds from the sale of Columbia’s common stock to PIMCO.
Columbia paid a quarterly dividend to its public stockholders without interruption from the first quarter of 2004 until September 2021. A portion of the $19.30 per share paid by PIMCO to acquire Columbia on December 8, 2021, was classified as a special dividend. The special dividend of $2.17 per share will be reflected on the 2021 Form 1099-DIV and will be classified as either taxable or a return of capital.
Dividend tax treatment information for Columbia’s common stock is usually announced by the third week of January and subsequently posted on www.REIT.com, a public website hosted by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT). We also report such data to direct stockholders on their Form 1099-DIV, and it is reported to all banks, brokers, and custodians. As a helpful reference, we have also compiled a chart of Columbia’s Historical 1099-DIV Information, which includes all historical dividend information currently available.
Columbia offered a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (“DRP”) for stockholders prior to the Company’s public listing on the New York Exchange in 2013. Columbia’s Board elected to suspend this DRP effective July 7, 2013, in preparation for the Company’s listing, and the program was never reinstated after that time.
American Stock Transfer & Trust Company Phone: 855-347-0042 (toll-free) Email: help@astfinancial.com (For your protection, please do not send personal or account information via email.)
During the time that Columbia was a publicly traded company, AST provided Stockholder Services for Columbia and maintained stock registries for all Columbia stockholders whose shares were not moved to a brokerage account. AST maintains historical account records for most stockholders who owned Columbia shares prior to the Company’s listing on the NYSE on October 10, 2013, up to the point at which the shares were transferred to a brokerage account. If your shares were held in a brokerage account at a bank, broker, or custodian, please direct questions to the bank, broker, or custodian with which the shares were held.
If you are unsure of how your shares were held, please contact AST for guidance.
Please contact your IRA account custodian for assistance. If your shares are or were held in an IRA with First Trust Retirement as custodian, you may contact them at 855-387-3847 or ftr@dstsystems.com.
Please note that Columbia does not provide tax advice. Stockholders should consult a tax professional for assistance in calculating their cost basis.
For the years during which Columbia was a publicly traded company (2013 through 2021), Columbia has provided current year tax information to stockholders on the appropriate tax form in advance of tax filing deadlines, as required by law. Year-end tax reporting data was typically announced via a press release and reported to www.REIT.com, a public website hosted by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT).
For shares that were held in an after tax (non-qualified) account, we have also compiled a chart of Columbia’s of Historical 1099-DIV Information as a helpful reference. This chart shows the historical taxable breakdown of distributions from the Company’s inception to December 2021.
Escheatment is a process under which abandoned or unclaimed property is remitted to a state authority. Columbia is required to remit unclaimed property, such as uncashed dividend checks, after a specified period of account dormancy. In some cases, Columbia was required to transfer actual shares to the states. The escheatment laws and dormancy periods vary by state. Columbia worked with its transfer agent, AST, to manage the escheatment process.
The only way to avoid having your account become dormant was to have maintained contact in writing and to have kept your information up to date by informing AST promptly of any address changes and depositing or cashing your dividend checks in a timely manner. Additionally, voting your shares when you received the annual proxy statement or notice of access from Columbia also helped to avoid account dormancy.
If you believe you may have escheated (or unclaimed) funds or assets from any source, go to your resident state’s official website (designated by a “.gov” domain). Then, simply follow the state’s step-by-step instructions to search for unclaimed property and, if found, claim any such property. Be sure to search in all states in which you have established a prior residency, as well as under any prior names, if your name has changed.
Columbia has corporate offices in New York City, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C.
Our corporate headquarters is located at:
315 Park Avenue South, Suite 500, New York, NY 10010
Legal and financial correspondence should be directed to Columbia’s Atlanta office for processing:
1170 Peachtree Street NE, Suite 600, Atlanta, GA 30309
As of December 8, 2021, Columbia is owned by affiliates of funds managed by PIMCO, one of the world’s premier global investment management firms. Columbia also manages a series of closed-end investment funds initiated by Normandy Real Estate Management, which was acquired and fully assimilated by Columbia in January 2020.
On February 20, 2013, in preparation for Columbia’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange in October 2013, the Company changed its name from Wells Real Estate Investment Trust II, Inc. to Columbia Property Trust, Inc. At that time, the Company also internalized its management and operations.