As we reported Friday, Windstream Holdings Inc. of Little Rock has officially spun off its real estate and copper assets into a real estate investment trust called Communications Sales & Leasing Inc.
The shares of the publicly traded REIT began trading today on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol CSAL. It also joined the S&P 400 Midcap Index.
As of about 10:20 a.m., the stock was trading at about $28.27 after opening at $28.44.
Meanwhile, shares of Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN) are trading down more than 14 percent to $10.47 per share.
The REIT was originally announced last July, before the sudden departure of Windstream CEO Jeffery Gardner in December. The spinoff was delayed slightly; it was originally expected to be completed in the first quarter.
Under previously announced terms, Windstream distributed about 80.1 percent of CS&L shares to investors who bought Windstream stock by the closing bell on Friday.
Windstream shareholders retained their Windstream shares and received one share of CS&L for every five shares of Windstream held.
Windstream CEO Tony Thomas talked about the spinoff with Sean Beherec in a story we published earlier this month.