W.P. Carey Acquires Finisar, FSI Facilities

NEW YORK, Feb. 15 -- Investment firm W.P. Carey & Co. LL has acquired a corporate office of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Finisar Corp., a developer of gigabit fiber optic technology for high-speed data networks, and a research and development/office facility located in Allen, Texas, from FSI International Inc., a manufacturer of capital equipment for the microelectronics industry. The total acquisition price of the two facilities was $29.1 million.

Finisar announced it will move its Advanced Optical Components Division into the Allen, Texas, facility once it completes necessary upgrades, including upgrading the current clean room space to Class 100, over the next 12 months.

The transaction was completed on behalf of Corporate Property Associates 16-Global Inc., a member of the $7 billion W.P. Carey Group of public real-estate investment trusts. The 252,000-square-foot facilities will be leased for an initial term of 15 years, followed by two 10-year renewal options.

These acquisitions add to W.P. Carey's growing portfolio of managed properties in California and Texas, where the W. P. Carey Group owns more than 5.5 million square feet and 8.1 million square feet, respectively.

Anne Coolidge Taylor, managing director of W.P. Carey, said, "The acquisition of these properties, located in the respective telecom markets of California and Texas, will further diversify our portfolio of properties and provide Finisar with additional capital to grow and expand its business."

Steve Workman, CFO of Finisar, said, "This transaction was extremely important to us. It helps to facilitate the relocation of one of our most important strategic assets, adds cash to our balance sheet and keeps us out of the real estate business, where we clearly don't belong."

Finisar makes fiber optic subsystems and network test and monitoring systems that enable high-speed data communications for networking and storage applications over Gigabit Ethernet local area networks, Fibre Channel storage area networks and metropolitan area networks using Fibre Channel, IP and SONET/SDH protocols.

For more information, visit: www.finisar.com