W. P. Carey Inc. (WPC) Risk Analysis

Certain provisions of our charter and of the Maryland General Corporation Law ("MGCL") may have the effect of inhibiting a third party from making a proposal to acquire us or impeding a change of control that could provide our stockholders with the opportunity to realize a premium over the then-prevailing market price of our common stock, including: - to protect against the loss of our REIT status due to concentration of ownership levels, our charter generally limits the ability of a person, to own, actually or constructively, more than 9.8%, in either value or number of shares, whichever is more restrictive, of our aggregate outstanding shares of common stock or preferred stock. Our board of directors (our "Board"), in its sole discretion, may exempt a person from such ownership limits, provided that they obtain such representations, covenants, and undertakings as appropriate to determine that the exemption would not affect our REIT status. Our Board may also increase or decrease the common stock ownership limit and/or the aggregate stock ownership limit, so long as the change would not result in five or fewer persons beneficially owning more than 49.9% in value of our outstanding stock;- "business combination" provisions that, subject to limitations, prohibit certain business combinations between us and an "interested stockholder" (defined generally as any person who beneficially owns 10% or more of the voting power of our outstanding voting stock), or an affiliate thereof, for five years after the most recent date on which the stockholder becomes an interested stockholder, and thereafter imposes appraisal rights and supermajority voting requirements on these combinations;- "control share" provisions that provide that holders of "control shares" of our company (defined as outstanding voting shares which, when aggregated with all other shares owned or controlled by the stockholder, entitle the stockholder to exercise one of three increasing ranges of voting power in electing directors) acquired in a "control share acquisition" (defined as the direct or indirect acquisition of ownership or control of issued and outstanding "control shares") have no voting rights except to the extent approved by our stockholders by the affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of all the votes entitled to be cast on the matter, excluding all interested shares; and - our charter empowers our Board, without stockholder approval, to increase or decrease the aggregate number of shares of our stock or the number of shares of stock of any class or series that we have authority to issue, classify any unissued shares of common stock or preferred stock, reclassify any previously classified, but unissued, shares of common stock or preferred stock into one or more classes or series of stock, and issue such shares of stock so classified or reclassified, and our Board may determine the relative rights, preferences, and privileges of any class or series of common stock or preferred stock issued, including terms that could have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control transaction. The MGCL permits various exemptions from its provisions, including business combinations that are exempted by a board of directors prior to the time that the "interested stockholder" becomes an interested stockholder. Our Board has, by resolution, exempted any business combination between us and any person who is an existing, or becomes in the future, an "interested stockholder." Consequently, the five-year prohibition and the supermajority vote requirements will not apply to business combinations between us and any such person. As a result, such person may be able to enter into business combinations with us that may not be in the best interest of our stockholders, without compliance with the supermajority vote requirements and the other provisions of the statute. Additionally, this resolution may be altered, revoked, or repealed in whole or in part at any time and we may opt back into the business combination provisions of the MGCL. If this resolution is revoked or repealed, the statute may discourage others from trying to acquire control of us and increase the difficulty of consummating any offer. In the case of the control share provisions of the MGCL, we have elected to opt out of these provisions of the MGCL pursuant to a provision in our bylaws. If we amend our bylaws to remove or modify this provision, the control share provisions of the statute may discourage others from trying to acquire control of us and increase the difficulty of consummating any offer. Additionally, Title 3, Subtitle 8 of the MGCL permits our Board, without stockholder approval and regardless of what is currently provided in our charter or our bylaws, to implement certain governance provisions, some of which we do not currently have. Our charter contains a provision opting out of Section 3-803 of the MGCL, which permits a board of directors to be divided into classes pursuant by Board action and without a stockholder-approved charter amendment. This provision can be modified only with a board recommendation and stockholder approval of the charter amendment. If we elect in the future to become subject to any of the remaining provisions of Title 3, Subtitle 8 of the MGCL, such an election may have the effect of inhibiting a third party from making an acquisition proposal for our company or of delaying, deferring, or preventing a change in control of our company under circumstances that otherwise could provide the holders of our common stock with the opportunity to realize a premium over the then-current market price. Our charter, our bylaws, and Maryland law also contain other provisions that may delay, defer, or prevent a transaction or a change of control that might involve a premium price for our common stock or otherwise be in the best interests of our stockholders.