Equity

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Common Stock and General Partner OP Units

The General Partner is authorized to issue up to 1.5 billion shares of Common Stock. As of December 31, 2019, the General Partner had approximately 1.1 billion shares of Common Stock issued and outstanding. Additionally, the Operating Partnership had approximately 1.1 billion General Partner OP Units issued and outstanding as of December 31, 2019, corresponding to the General Partner’s outstanding shares of Common Stock.

Common Stock Offering

On September 26, 2019, the Company completed a public equity offering (the "Offering"), selling a total of 94.3 million shares of Common Stock, which included the full exercise of the underwriters' option to purchase additional shares, for net proceeds, after underwriting discounts and offering expenses, of $886.9 million. The Company contributed the net proceeds from the Offering to the OP in exchange for additional General Partner OP Units, which have substantially identical economic terms as the Company’s common stock. The net proceeds of the Offering were subsequently used to pay amounts owed in connection with the settlement of certain litigation, as described in Note 10 – Commitments and Contingencies, and for general corporate purposes.

Common Stock Continuous Offering Programs

On September 19, 2016, the Company registered a continuous equity offering program (the “Prior Program”) pursuant to which the Company could offer and sell, from time to time, in “at-the-market” offerings or certain other transactions, shares of Common Stock with an aggregate gross sales price of up to $750.0 million, through its sales agents. As of and during the year ended December 31, 2019, the Company had issued 5.0 million shares under the Prior Program, at a weighted average price per share of $8.42, for gross proceeds of $42.5 million. The weighted average price per share, net of offering costs, was $8.30, for net proceeds of $41.8 million. Prior to 2019, no shares of Common Stock had been issued pursuant to the Prior Program.

On April 15, 2019, the Company established a new continuous equity offering program pursuant to which the Company may sell shares of Common Stock having an aggregate offering price of up to $750.0 million from time to time through April 15, 2022 in “at-the-market” offerings or certain other transactions ( the “Current ATM Program”). The Current ATM Program replaced the Prior Program. The proceeds from any sale of shares under the Current ATM Program have been or will be used for general corporate purposes, which may include funding potential acquisitions and repurchasing or repaying outstanding indebtedness. As of and during the year ended December 31, 2019, the Company had issued 9.0 million shares under the Current ATM Program, at a weighted average price per share of $9.60, for gross proceeds of $86.7 million. The weighted average price per share, net of offering costs, was $9.46, for net proceeds of $85.4 million. As of December 31, 2019, the Company had $663.3 million available to be sold under the Current ATM Program.

Series F Preferred Stock and Series F Preferred OP Units

The Series F Preferred Stock pays cumulative cash dividends at the rate of 6.70% per annum on their liquidation preference of $25.00 per share (equivalent to $1.675 per share on an annual basis). The Series F Preferred Stock was not redeemable by the Company before January 3, 2019, the fifth anniversary of the date on which such Series F Preferred Stock was issued (the “Initial Redemption Date”), except under circumstances intended to preserve the General Partner’s status as a REIT for federal and/or state income tax purposes and except upon the occurrence of a change of control. On and after the Initial Redemption Date, the General Partner may, at its option, redeem shares of the Series F Preferred Stock, in whole or from time to time in part, at a redemption price of $25.00 per share plus, subject to exceptions, any accrued and unpaid dividends thereon to the date fixed for redemption. The shares of Series F Preferred Stock have no stated maturity, are not subject to any sinking fund or mandatory redemption and will remain outstanding indefinitely unless the General Partner redeems or otherwise repurchases them or they become convertible and are converted into Common Stock (or, if applicable, alternative consideration). The Series F Preferred Stock trades on the NYSE under the symbol VER PRF. The Series F Preferred Units contain the same terms as the Series F Preferred Stock.

During the year ended December 31, 2019, the Company redeemed a total of 12.0 million shares of Series F Preferred Stock, in two separate transactions, representing approximately 28.02% of the issued and outstanding preferred shares as of the beginning of the year. The shares of Series F Preferred Stock were redeemed at a redemption price of $25.00 per share plus all accrued and unpaid dividends.

As of December 31, 2019, there were approximately 30.9 million shares of Series F Preferred Stock, approximately 30.9 million corresponding General Partner Series F Preferred Units and 49,766 Limited Partner Series F Preferred Units issued and outstanding.

For federal income tax purposes, distributions to stockholders are characterized as ordinary dividends, capital gain distributions, or nondividend distributions. Nondividend distributions will reduce U.S stockholders’ basis (but not below zero) in their shares. The following table shows the character of the Series F Preferred Stock distributions paid on a percentage basis for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2019		2018		2017
Ordinary dividends	71.7	%	100.0	%	95.0	%
Capital gain distributions	28.3	%	—	%	5.0	%
Total	100.0	%	100.0	%	100.0	%

Limited Partner OP Units

As of December 31, 2019 the Operating Partnership had approximately 0.8 million Limited Partner OP Units outstanding.

On July 16, 2019, the SEC filed a complaint in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York charging the Company’s Former Manager (including certain of its principals) with securities law violations for, among other things, wrongfully obtaining certain incentive fees in connection with mergers entered into by the Company in 2013 and 2014. Simultaneously with the filing of the complaint, the parties entered into proposed settlement agreements, without admitting or denying the allegations of the complaint, pursuant to which 2.9 million Limited Partner OP Units were surrendered by the Former Manager and the Former CFO to the Company. The Company recorded the surrender of the Limited Partner OP Units as a reduction to litigation and non-routine costs, net, of $26.5 million, using a per share price of $9.08, during the second quarter of 2019. In addition to surrendering the 2.9 million Limited Partner OP Units, the Former Manager and the Former CFO relinquished any rights to $6.4 million of dividends on those units, which the Company had withheld payment of since October 2015. The court

approved the settlements on July 17, 2019 and the Limited Partner OP Units were subsequently canceled on July 26, 2019. As discussed in Note 10 – Commitments and Contingencies, the contribution to the Class Action Settlement by the Company’s Former Manager included the value of substantially all of these surrendered Limited Partner OP Units and dividends.

During the fourth quarter of 2019, the Former Manager and Former CFO surrendered an aggregate of 19.9 million Limited Partner OP Units to the Company to fund a portion of their contributions toward the Class Action Settlement. On October 15, 2019, the Company contributed cash to the settlement fund equal to the value of the surrendered Limited Partner OP Units and the surrendered Limited Partner OP Units were canceled. The Company reduced additional paid-in capital, distributions payable and non–controlling interests in the accompanying financial statements of VEREIT, Inc. for both of the above-mentioned transactions and made a corresponding reduction in distributions payable, General Partner's common equity and Limited Partner's common equity in the accompanying financial statements of the OP. Refer to Note 10 – Commitments and Contingencies for additional information.

Common Stock Dividends

The Company declared quarterly dividends to stockholders of record each quarter from the first quarter of the year ended December 31, 2017 through the third quarter of the year ended December 31, 2019 of $0.1375 per share of Common Stock (representing an annualized dividend of $0.55 per share). The Company’s Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.1375 per share of Common Stock (equaling an annualized dividend of $0.55 per share) for the fourth quarter of 2019 on November 5, 2019 to stockholders of record as of December 31, 2019, which was paid on January 15, 2020. An equivalent distribution by the Operating Partnership is applicable per OP unit.

For federal income tax purposes, distributions to stockholders are characterized as ordinary dividends, capital gain distributions, or nondividend distributions. Nondividend distributions will reduce U.S stockholders’ basis (but not below zero) in their shares. The following table shows the character of the Common Stock distributions paid on a percentage basis for the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2019		2018		2017
Ordinary dividends	45.0	%	13.8	%	60.0	%
Nondividend distributions	37.2	%	86.2	%	37.0	%
Capital gain distributions	17.8	%	—	%	3.0	%
Total	100.0	%	100.0	%	100.0	%

Share Repurchase Programs

On May 3, 2018, the Company’s Board of Directors terminated its prior share repurchase program and authorized a new program (the “2018 Share Repurchase Program”) that permitted the Company to repurchase up to $200.0 million of its outstanding Common Stock through May 3, 2019, as market conditions warranted. On May 6, 2019, the Company’s Board of Directors authorized a new share repurchase program (the “2019 Share Repurchase Program”) that permits the Company to repurchase up to $200.0 million of its outstanding Common Stock through May 6, 2022. Under the share repurchase programs, repurchases can be made through open market purchases, privately negotiated transactions, structured or derivative transactions, including accelerated stock repurchase transactions, or other methods of acquiring shares in accordance with applicable securities laws and other legal requirements. The share repurchase programs do not obligate the Company to make any repurchases at a specific time or in a specific situation and repurchases are influenced by prevailing market conditions, the trading price of the Common Stock, the Company’s financial performance and other conditions. Shares of Common Stock repurchased by the Company under the share repurchase programs, if any, will be returned to the status of authorized but unissued shares of Common Stock.

There were no share repurchases under the 2018 Share Repurchase Program or 2019 Share Repurchase Program during the year ended December 31, 2019. As of December 31, 2019, the Company had $200.0 million available for share repurchases under the 2019 Share Repurchase Program. During the year ended December 31, 2018, the Company repurchased 0.8 million shares of Common Stock in multiple open market transactions, at a weighted average share price of $6.95 for an aggregate purchase price of $5.6 million under the 2018 Share Repurchase Program.