Real Estate Trusts Fail to Impede Activist in Fight Over Boards

Two publicly traded real estate investment trusts aren’t entitled to a preliminary injunction against activist investor Blackwells Capital LLC to prevent it from soliciting proxies in an alleged bid for board control, a federal court ruled Wednesday.

The trusts, Global Net Lease Inc. and The Necessity Retail REIT Inc., failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits because they didn’t adequately allege material omissions in proxy materials with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Judge J. Paul Oetken said for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Oetken dismissed Blackwells’ counterclaims in the case March ...