Blackstone has confirmed the sale of its European logistics platform, Logicor, to China Investment Corporation (CIC), for €12.25 bn - the largest real estate investment transaction ever in Europe.
The statement from Blackstone's €90 bn global real estate business came on Friday.
Days earlier media reports revealed that CIC, a Chinese sovereign wealth fund with more than €700 bn of assets under management, had emerged as the preferred bidder for Logicor.
CIC beat off competition from two other Asian bidders, a joint venture between Singaporean state-backed investors Mapletree and Temasek, and the Singaporean-listed logistics firm GLP.
Logicor, founded in 2012-13, owns 630 assets totalling 13.6 million m2 across 17 European countries, making it the second-largest owner of European logistics behind Prologis.
Over 70% of Logicor's portfolio is concentrated in the UK, Germany, France and Southern Europe.
Anthony Myers, Blackstone’s head of real estate Europe said: 'We built Logicor through over 50 acquisitions to be a premier pan-European logistics real estate company. It will now have an excellent new long term owner, and we have no doubt that it will go from strength to strength in a sector with hugely positive prospects.'
Mo Barzegar, Logicor’s CEO, added, 'We are excited about the company’s future prospects under the new long-term ownership of CIC with whom we will continue to deliver and exceed our customers’ expectations.'
Closing is expected to occur later this year.
Eastdil Secured and Goldman Sachs were lead advisors to Blackstone, with additional advice provided by PJT Partners, Morgan Stanley, BofA Merrill Lynch and Citigroup. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett acted as legal advisors to Blackstone.
UBS acted as financial advisor to CIC, while Clifford Chance provided legal support.
Historic deal
The sale of Logicor is the largest deal in European history, eclipsing the €11 bn paid by Paris-based office owner Unibail for the then Dutch shopping centre group Rodamco Europe in 2007.
Blackstone ran a twin-track process which could also have seen Logicor floated on the public markets, but a good price was found in the private sale market.
The sale to CIC is the latest example of sovereign wealth capital buying into the European logistics sector. In January this year, GIC, Singapore's main SWF, completed the €2.4 bn purchase of P3, a pan-European owner, developer and manager of logistics properties, from TPG Real Estate and Ivanhoé Cambridge.
In 2014, GIC and GLP teamed up to acquire IndCor Properties, Blackstone's logistics platform in the US, for $8.1 bn.
