US private equity giant Blackstone has appointed its own representative at Multi, suggesting its takeover of the European retail real estate developer is virtually complete.
US private equity giant Blackstone has appointed its own representative at Multi, suggesting its takeover of the European retail real estate developer is virtually complete.
Notification filed with the Chamber of Commerce indicate that Blackstone has appointed Jonathan Lurie, managing director at Blackstone's real estate division, to Multi's supervisory board.
Dick van Well, former CEO of construction firm Dura Vermeer who until last week was on Multi's supervisory board, has been appointed a director.
Chief investment officer Eric van Duren is no longer a director of the developer. CEO Heino Vink and CFO Mark van den Berg look set to retain their current positions.
Blackstone has been actively working on a takeover in recent months and was given the green light by the European Commission in late July to acquire Multi.
Multi entered the spotlight in April amid media reports that Blackstone was close to taking control of Europe's largest shopping centre developer due to liquidity problems relating to a €900 mln loan package. In April Blackstone was said to have acquired almost half of Multi's €900 mln in corporate debt over a nine month period at a hefty discount of 50 cents per euro of debt.
Neither Blackstone nor Multi were available for comment when contacted by PropertyEU.