W.P. Carey Bullish on Q4 Prospects

NEW YORK CITY-W.P. Carey Inc. on Thursday put the spotlight on its conversion to REIT status and merger with affiliate Corporate Property Associates 15 Inc. in reporting its third-quarter results, while noting that its headline numbers were off year over year. In a conference call for investors, president and CEO Trevor Bond cited the cyclical nature of incentive fees—which were higher in Q3 2011, due to the merger of CPA:14 and CPA:16—and the comparatively light investment sales volume thus far in 2012.

However, Bond noted that Q4 is traditionally the 39-year-old company’s busiest quarter, and the expectation is that this year’s final weeks will prove to be no exception. “Currently, we do have a strong pipeline, although of course we can’t be sure we’ll close everything in that pipeline,” he said. Nonetheless, he predicted that Q4 would be stronger than each of the year’s first quarters.