REAL ESTATE

Walden Residential Properties Inc. said it agreed to buy closely held Drever Partners Inc. for $670 million in securities and assumed debt, in a deal that would form one of the largest public owners of apartment properties in the United States. The move is the latest in a string of transactions in the real estate investment trust, or REIT, industry. Drever is based in San Francisco and Houston and owns 18,900 apartment units in 80 communities in California, Texas, Arizona and Georgia. Walden owns 22,900 units in Texas and elsewhere. The purchase would increase Dallas-based Walden’s total market value to more than $1.5 billion and its apartment holdings by about 80% to 41,000 units in the Southeast, Southwest and California. Walden’s shares rose $1 to close at $24.875 on the NYSE.