M&A · Financials · Real Estate Investment Trusts
Equity Residential to acquire Avalonbay Communities Inc
Announced May 21, 2026 · Closed Aug 17, 2026
Deal value$25.75BEV $35.76B
Premium—To unaffected price
EV / Adj. EBITDA—11.7x EV / Revenue
ConsiderationAll stock$185.12 per share
Transaction
- Acquirer
- Equity Residential
- Target
- Avalonbay Communities Inc
- Buyer type
- Strategic
- Offer price per share
- $185.12
- Enterprise value
- $35.76B
- Status
- Closed Aug 17, 2026
Deal protections
- Break fee (target pays)
- $1.07B · 4.2%
- Reverse fee (buyer pays)
- $1.00B · 3.9%
- Go-shop
- No-shop
- Financing
- Committed · Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo
Advisors
- To the acquirer
- Morgan Stanley
- To the target
- Goldman Sachs
- Morgan Stanley fee
- $50.0M
- Goldman Sachs fee
- $65.0M
Sector context · Financials
- Comparable deals
- 74 in the prior 24 months
- Premium
- Sector median 35.9%
- EV / Adj. EBITDA
- Sector median 13.7x
- Break fee
- 4.2% vs. 3.7% sector median
Timeline
- AnnouncedMay 21, 2026
- Proxy filedJul 13, 2026
- Definitive proxyJul 13, 2026
- Shareholder voteAug 12, 2026
- ClosedAug 17, 2026
Valuation · fairness opinions
Trading comparablesMorgan Stanley$61.09$70.54
Trading comparablesMorgan Stanley$168.65$194.93
Discounted cash flowMorgan Stanley$70.57$92.64
Discounted cash flowMorgan Stanley$200.76$269.16
Discounted cash flowMorgan Stanley$202.00$270.40
Discounted cash flowGoldman Sachs$171.63$209.67
Discounted cash flowGoldman Sachs$179.69$218.40
Future share priceGoldman Sachs$172.07$207.86
Future share priceGoldman Sachs$58.81$69.57
Future share priceGoldman Sachs$182.08$215.22
Offer $185.12
Implied value per Avalonbay Communities Inc share by analysis, from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs · DCF discount rate 6%–7.5%.