Morgan Stanley, Property Trust Didn’t Mislead Investors: Court

A former shareholder in Gramercy Property Trust can’t proceed with claims that the trust, its board, and financial adviser Morgan Stanley & Co. undervalued the trust and misled investors in proxy materials preceding its sale, a federal court in Maryland ruled.

The suit alleged Gramercy’s merger with a Blackstone Group LP affiliate “was timed to take advantage of a temporary low point in the Company’s stock prices,” something that benefited the defendants, but not common shareholders.

And pre-sale proxy materials didn’t reflect the trust’s true worth, plaintiff Raul Hurtado said. Before the sale, Gramercy switched from diversified holdings to a ...