Blackstone readies Multi takeover bid

Blackstone is preparing the groundwork for a takeover of European shopping centre developer Multi Corporation.

After months of speculation about Blackstone’s intentions, it has emerged that the US private equity giant has notified the European Commission of a proposed takeover of Multi.

Multi Corporation emailed a short reaction to PropertyNL - PropertyEU's Dutch-language sister publication - in response to the news: 'We have taken note of the notification sent to the European competition authority. Multi is constantly in talks with Blackstone.'

Blackstone were not available to comment on Thursday.

The US group contacted the Commission on 20 June about the proposed takeover but this has only come to light in a publication from the Official Journal of the European Union.

In a legalistic text Case COMP/M.6970 - Blackstone/Multi Corporation the Commission wrote, 'on preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the EC Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved.'

The Commission said interested parties had 10 days from the date of the publication to 'to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation'.

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.

According to well-informed sources, Blackstone had by April acquired almost half the €900 mln in corporate debt in the last nine months at a hefty discount of 50 cents per euro of debt.

In a follow-up interview Multi CEO Heino Vink stressed that the company was meeting its commitments on the loan. Earlier this year, well-informed sources told PropertyEU that Multi had managed to remain in the black in 2012. However, this information was based on the company's provisional results. As reported above, the definitive results revealed a loss of €4 mln.

Multi is an active developer, manager and owner of shopping centres in 14 European countries. The Dutch developer is market leader in Turkey with 10 existing centres and several more in the development or construction phase. In recent years Blackstone's European real estate arm has put together shopping centre portfolios in Poland and Turkey. Gaining control of Multi would give Blackstone a pan-European retail business.