The Dallaire Family and Cominar Announce Temporary $74.0 Million Financing to Complete the Complexe Jules-Dallaire

Marketwired

QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC--(Marketwire - Sept. 20, 2012) - The Dallaire family and Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust ("Cominar") (CUF.UN) announced today that AM Total Investissements (GP) ("AM Total"), which is a general partnership wholly-owned by the Dallaire family, has concluded a temporary financing by way of a monetization transaction on three million units of Cominar for proceeds of approximately $74.0 million.

The monetization transaction involves a forward contract concluded by AM Total with a Canadian chartered bank referencing the closing price of Cominar units on September 20, 2012. Pursuant to this financial instrument, AM Total, which holds 8,277,175 units of Cominar, maintains the beneficial ownership and voting rights attached to the monetized units.

The Dallaire family owns directly and indirectly a total of 9,010,078 units of Cominar or approximately 7.3% of the issued and outstanding units, including the three million units being monetized.

The Dallaire family will use the proceeds of the financing to fund the development of Phase 2 of the Complexe Jules-Dallaire, a project co-owned by Cominar and the Dallaire family. The Dallaire family is building Phase 2 at its own risk, including ten storeys of office space plus some 200 condominium units on fifteen floors to be sold to individuals. Once the development of the ten storeys of office space is complete, the Dallaire family may increase its interest by up to 50% of the fair market value of the entire Complexe by way of a cash consideration. Subsequently, the entire property will be managed by Cominar.

"It continues to be important for me to seek to align the interests of our family with those of our unitholders," said Mr. Michel Dallaire of the Dallaire family and the President and Chief Executive Officer of Cominar. "The transaction announced today was designed to preserve this objective and further Cominar's objectives," added Mr. Dallaire.

The Dallaire family has assumed all costs related to the financing.

Dallaire family

The Dallaire family is comprised of the spouse, estate and children of the late Jules Dallaire, the founder of Cominar, and related entities, including related family trusts and AM Total Investments (GP).

Cominar Portfolio as at September 20, 2012

Cominar is the third largest diversified real estate investment trust in Canada and currently remains the largest commercial property owner in the Province of Québec. Cominar owns a real estate portfolio of 482 high-quality properties, consisting of 123 office, 158 retail and 201 industrial and mixed-use buildings that cover a total area of 35.0 million square feet in Québec, Ontario, the Atlantic Provinces and Western Canada. Cominar's objectives are to pay growing cash distributions to unitholders and to maximize unitholder value by way of proactive management and the expansion of its portfolio.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements with respect to Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust and its operations, strategy, financial performance and condition. These statements generally can be identified by use of forward looking words such as "may", "will", "expect", "estimate", "anticipate", "intends", "believe" or "continue" or the negative thereof or similar variations. The actual results and performance of Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust could differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Such statements are qualified in their entirety by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations. Some important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include, among other things, general economic and market factors, competition, changes in government regulation and the factors described under "Risk Factors" in the annual information form of Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust. The cautionary statements qualify all forward-looking statements attributable to Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust and persons acting on its behalf. Unless otherwise stated, all forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and Cominar Real Estate Investment Trust has no obligation to update such statements.