And so is the price of a partnership unit.

For example, suppose you buy a partnership unit for $10.

But the 2.6 million master limited partnership units, sold for $18.50 each, have not traded near the offering price since.

Reich & Tang's partnership units rose $2 yesterday to close at $18.

Alternatively, investors may hold their partnership units until the property is sold and the deal winds up.

Pimco said a deal could value its publicly traded partnership units at $38 to $39 each.

During the summer, the investor group acquired a majority of partnership units, and a full takeover was recently completed.

The price of Mesa's partnership units has fallen as low of $2 each last week, after trading at more than $13 only two years ago.

With the firm preparing to offer new partnership units to employees in March 1996, these partners pushed to have the management situation clarified.

That deal was more of an initial offering than a spinoff, because the partnership units were not distributed free to Borden shareholders.