Archstone-Smith may be acquired

Tishman Speyer Properties and Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. are close to a deal to acquire real estate investment trust Archstone-Smith Trust, according to Monday’s Wall Street Journal online edition.

The total value of the deal could top $20 billion, including debt, the report said. Lehman, Tishman and Archstone-Smith could not be immediately reached for comment.

Archstone-Smith has a market capitalization of about $12.3 billion. Its stock trades at about 24 times Wall Street’s earnings estimates for 2007, above the sector average of 18.4 times earnings.

An Archstone-Smith acquisition would be the latest in a wave of deals in the real estate sector. Earlier this year, Blackstone Group acquired Equity Office Properties Trust for $23 billion.

Archstone-Smith owns apartments in such markets as Southern California, San Francisco, Washington, Boston and New York. As of March 31, Archstone-Smith owned or had an ownership stake in 344 communities, with 86,014 apartments.