There’s another big move in shares of Santa Ana-based Grubb & Ellis Co. on word the real estate brokerage has secured $18 million in financing.
The company’s shares, which have seen wild swings this week, are up more than 13% in Wednesday afterhours trading to a market value of about $50 million.
The jump comes after Grubb & Ellis said it struck a finance deal with Los Angeles-based Colony Capital LLC.
The financing could lead to a “potential larger strategic investment” by Colony, according to Grubb & Ellis.
The investment firm has 60 days to negotiate terms of a possible investment, it said.
A week ago, Grubb & Ellis said it hired San Francisco-based JMP Securities to explore a potential sale of the company or other options.
Since then, the company’s shares have seen wild swings.
On Monday they dropped about 30%, perhaps on fears about limited options for Grubb & Ellis.
On Tuesday, Grubb & Ellis shares bounced back about 12% on no specific news.
The shares largely were flat in regular Wednesday trading.
Grubb & Ellis’ stock has been battered by the commercial real estate downturn in the past few years.
The stock is down about 30% in the past two years.
Colony has “a strong track record of identifying undervalued real estate and corporate investment opportunities,” Grubb said.
In 2009, Colony made a $206 million loan to Newport Beach-based homebuilder William Lyon Homes Inc.
The firm is led by founder and real estate investor Tom Barrack.
Grubb still is dealing with issues from its combination with Santa Ana-based NNN Realty Advisors Inc., which came near the peak of the market in 2007.
It was the surviving entity in the deal, which prompted a move of Grubb’s headquarters from Chicago to Orange County.
Last month, Grubb said it started a company—Daymark Realty Advisors—to manage the assets it got through the deal with NNN Realty.
Daymark is being run as a separate business and is based in Santa Ana.
It’s set up to manage about 8,700 apartments and 33 million square feet of commercial space bought through NNN Realty-sponsored tenant-in-common funds.
