CLEVELAND, May 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Forest City Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: FCEA and FCEB) today announced that its New York-based subsidiary, Forest City Ratner Companies, closed an agreement with Nets Sports and Entertainment and Mikhail Prokhorov, under which entities controlled by Prokhorov will acquire an 80 percent stake in the Nets basketball team and a 45 percent share in the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn.  The transaction was approved by the National Basketball Association's Board of Governors on May 11.

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"This is a major step forward for Brooklyn, the Nets and Atlantic Yards," said Charles A. Ratner, Forest City Enterprises president and chief executive officer.  "We are pleased to partner with Mikhail Prokhorov and we share his vision of bringing professional basketball to Brooklyn and to a worldwide audience from the Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards.  I also want to acknowledge the hard work and creativity of Forest City's entire New York team, led by Bruce Ratner and Joanne Minieri, in making this day possible."    

In accordance with the agreement, subsidiaries of Onexim Sports and Entertainment Holding USA, Inc., have invested $200 million and made certain contingent funding commitments to acquire the above-referenced shares of the arena and team, as well as the right to purchase up to 20 percent of the Atlantic Yards Development Company, which will develop the non-arena real estate. 

About Forest City

Forest City Enterprises, Inc., is an $11.9-billion NYSE-listed national real estate company.  The Company is principally engaged in the ownership, development, management and acquisition of commercial and residential real estate and land throughout the United States.  For more information, visit www.forestcity.net.

SOURCE Forest City Enterprises, Inc.

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