Equity Office extends $7 bln consent offer by a day

NEW YORK, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Equity Office Properties Trust EOP.N, the largest private owner of U.S. office buildings, on Wednesday extended its tender offer for debt securities as it prepares for Blackstone Group's $20 billion acquisition.

The 24-hour extension comes five days after a group of bondholders including American International Group Inc., (AIG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) the world's largest insurer, said they would block Equity Office's proposed repurchase of $7 billion of bonds that the investors say falls short of their securities' full value.

Owners of a majority of the notes on Friday said they collected enough "no consent" agreements to block the tender. The position of the ad hoc committee is unchanged, Andrew Rosenberg, an attorney with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP representing the committee, said in an interview.

Equity Office in a statement extended the consent payment deadline for tender offers and consent solicitations for notes written under 1997 and 2000 indentures to 5 p.m. New York time (2200 GMT) on Wednesday, from the same time on Tuesday.

The Chicago-based company on Monday said it had "no evidence to suggest that it will or will not timely receive the required consents." An Equity Office spokeswoman declined to comment on Wednesday.

Private-equity firm Blackstone Group's planned purchase of Equity Office would be the largest acquisition of a real estate investment trust. Equity Office has been attempting to repurchase $8.4 billion in debt and amend debt covenants to pave the way for the buyout.