The closing

AvalonBay Communities and Equity Residential completed their all-stock merger of equals on August 17, 2026, forming a single company renamed Vivmark Residential. Shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker VMRK at the opening of trading on August 18.

The closing followed shareholder approval on August 12, when more than 99% of votes cast at each company's special meeting backed the deal — roughly 90% of outstanding shares at both AvalonBay and Equity Residential, based on each company's respective record date. Under the exchange ratio agreed when the merger was announced on May 21, each AvalonBay share converted into the right to receive 2.793 Equity Residential shares.

The companies first disclosed the agreement on May 21, 2026, when AvalonBay owned roughly 98,000 apartments and had a market capitalization near $25 billion, while Equity Residential held about 85,000 apartments and roughly $20.5 billion in assets under management. Combined, the deal was valued at a total enterprise value of about $71 billion at announcement.

What Vivmark owns

At closing, Vivmark reported an equity market capitalization of approximately $51 billion and an enterprise value of approximately $70 billion, with more than 184,000 rental apartments and over 11,100 apartments under active construction — a portfolio the company said includes more than $4.4 billion of active development. That combined unit count pushes the new company past both predecessors on the National Multifamily Housing Council's 2026 ranking of the largest US apartment owners, on which AvalonBay had placed fourth with 87,501 units and Equity Residential sixth with 85,190.

Benjamin Schall, previously AvalonBay's president and chief executive, became Vivmark's chief executive officer. Michael Manelis is chief operating officer and Kevin O'Shea is chief financial officer. The board has 14 trustees, seven nominated by each legacy company, with former AvalonBay board chair Stephen Sterrett serving as Vivmark's chairman.

In the companies' joint closing announcement, Schall said the new company's ambition was to be the country's “best-performing rental housing company,” while Sterrett described the combination as an opportunity to use the merged platform's scale to deliver value for shareholders. Neither statement set out a financial target, and the announcement did not quantify expected cost savings from combining the two operating platforms.

Market reaction and the ratings upgrade

Trading in Vivmark shares moved higher on August 18, the stock's first session under the new ticker, as the combined company entered the public markets. One day after the close, S&P Global Ratings raised Vivmark's long-term issuer credit rating to ‘A’ with a stable outlook, a status the company said put it among only four real estate investment trusts holding an S&P ‘A’ rating. Chief Financial Officer Kevin O'Shea said the upgrade was “an encouraging early affirmation of the financial strength and strategic benefits created by our merger,” and that the company's scale and balance sheet should improve its access to capital as it funds its development pipeline.

At $71 billion in enterprise value, the tie-up is the largest public REIT merger on record, surpassing the roughly $26 billion combination of Prologis and Duke Realty in 2022 by a wide margin. Analysts who covered the announcement in May had noted the unusual scale of pairing two of the sector's oldest and largest apartment platforms rather than a larger company absorbing a smaller one — AvalonBay and Equity Residential's combined pre-merger apartment count of roughly 183,000 units was itself close to the 184,000-unit figure Vivmark reported at closing, since the deal added no new properties beyond the two legacy portfolios.

What the merger does not resolve

A merger of equals combines balance sheets and management teams; it does not by itself change occupancy, rents or costs, which are set property by property in each of Vivmark's local markets. The two companies' final quarterly results as separate entities, published July 22, are covered in Earnings Fell at Both Apartment REITs in Their Last Quarter as Separate Companies.

Vivmark said integration planning, organizational redesign and talent selection had been completed before closing, so that August 18 would be a routine first day for residents and staff. Whether cost efficiencies from combining two large operating platforms materialize, and on what timetable, will show up first in Vivmark's initial quarterly results as a combined company rather than in the closing announcement itself.