Blackstone to buy US warehouses from Colony Capital in $5.9bn deal
Buyout firm’s latest acquisition furthers its bets on the rise of ecommerce
Blackstone has clinched a deal to buy a group of industrial warehouses from Colony Capital for $5.9bn including debt, adding to the private equity firm’s burgeoning portfolio in logistic properties as it bets on the rise of ecommerce.
The deal is the latest in a flurry of multibillion transactions by Blackstone’s property arm, which in June struck the largest private real estate deal in history with the acquisition of another US warehouses portfolio from Singapore-based GLP for $18.7bn.
Colony Industrial’s assets span some 60m square feet across 465 light industrial buildings with a large concentration in Dallas, Atlanta, Florida, northern New Jersey, and California.
“This acquisition of high quality warehouses demonstrates our continued strong conviction in logistics and positive ecommerce trends,” Nadeem Meghji, head of real estate Americas at Blackstone said in a statement on Monday.
Blackstone has built a $36bn war chest for investments in property after setting a new record for real estate fundraising in September with $20.5bn in commitments to its property arm.
Ken Caplan, real estate co-chief executive at Blackstone, has called the private equity group’s foray into logistics its “highest conviction” trade.
In Europe, Blackstone has amassed an €8bn portfolio of warehouses and dark kitchens, which include so-called “last mile” properties used by the likes of Amazon and also house dark kitchens that food delivery services such as Deliveroo rely on.
Colony Capital is expected to receive more than $1.2bn in proceeds.