US – The California Public Employees' Retirement System and LaSalle Investment Management are to buy Chicago-based real estate investment trust CenterPoint Properties Trust in a $3.4bn deal.
CalEast Industrial Investors – whose members include the $199.8bn pension fund and LaSalle – has a definitive agreement to buy CenterPoint for $50 a share in cash – a 9% premium over the previous day’s closing price.
CenterPoint is a publicly traded REIT and is the largest industrial property company in the Chicago area, the firms said. CalEast invests in warehouses and related real estate and is managed by LaSalle.
The move builds on a six-year industrial property joint venture between CenterPoint and CalEast called CenterPoint Venture.
"This transaction maximizes value for shareholders as an all cash sale with no financing contingency,” said CenterPoint chief executive Mike Mullen. “The price achieved reflects the significant value of the operating platform that we have created.”
LaSalle CEO Lynn Thurber added: “Through CalEast's acquisition of CenterPoint, we gain access to an attractive warehouse portfolio, a high quality land bank, and an outstanding management team that has played a pioneering role in the rapidly emerging intermodal logistics industry.”
"Rapid growth in global trade is driving significant change in the warehouse requirements and logistics strategies of companies around the world," said Mike McCook, senior investment officer for real estate at CalPERS.
