Fitch: Liberty Property Trust's Conservative Leverage Levels Support Ratings

Business Wire, April 17, 2008

NEW YORK -- Liberty Property Trust's (Liberty) leverage, risk-adjusted capital and unencumbered asset coverage ratios remain at levels commensurate with a 'BBB ' Issuer Default Rating (IDR), but are balanced by Liberty's weakening coverage ratios, according to the latest credit analysis update by Fitch Ratings.

Fitch affirmed Liberty's 'BBB ' IDR on March 12 with a Stable Outlook.

Fitch's current Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) for Liberty are as follows:

Liberty Property Trust

--IDR 'BBB '.

Liberty Property Limited Partnership

--IDR 'BBB '.

Primary credit strengths include the following:

--Solid unencumbered asset coverage;

--Manageable debt maturity and lease expiration schedules;

--Conservative leverage and adequate risk-adjusted capitalization; and

--Solid, albeit weakening, same-store operating performance

Primary credit concerns include the following:

--Adjusted funds from operations payout ratio in excess of 100%;

--Declining trend in coverage ratios;

--Concentration of net rental income from Pennsylvania / New Jersey region; and

--Lease-up risk from development pipeline.

Fitch's latest credit analysis update on Liberty, which was published on April 15, provides more detail supporting Fitch's ratings, and is available on the Fitch Ratings web site at www.fitchratings.com.

Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site.