Maryland company buying MedEquities

A Maryland real estate investment trust with a market capitalization of more than $7 billion has agreed to buy MedEquities Realty Trust in a deal that values the West End-based company at about $600 million.

Omega Healthcare Investors plans to buy MedEquities, which was founded in the spring of 2014, through a combination of stock and cash and values the local company’s stock at $10.26. MedEquities shares (Ticker: MRT) closed 2018 at $6.84, down from more than $11 a year earlier. MedEquities, which went public in 2016, also will pay a special dividend of 21 cents per share just before selling to Omega. The company late last year postponed its third-quarter dividend — a payment it now says it won't make at all — as its executives sorted out problems with a big tenant.