China Investment Corporation (CIC) is in exclusive talks to buy Logicor, the European logistics platform owned by Blackstone, for more than €12 bn.
A Chinese sovereign wealth fund, CIC has beaten off competition from two other Asian bidders to buy the business, in a deal that could be announced as early as this week. A joint venture between Singaporean state-backed investors Mapletree and Temasek, and the Singaporean-listed logistics firm GLP, were the other bidders.
CIC is understood to have submitted an all-cash bid for Logicor, highlighting the strength of its interest and the depth of its pockets. According to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute CIC had assets under management of $814 bn at end-2014.
The sale of Logicor will be 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.
Eastdil Secured is advising Blackstone on the sale. 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.
Logicor owns 630 assets across Europe totalling 13.6 m2, making it the second largest owner of European logistics behind Prologis.
US-based Prologis owned 736 standing assets, totalling 16 million m2, and 9 million m2 under development in Europe at end-2016. The entire European portfolio was valued at $13.1 bn, according to the company's annual report.
A sale of Logicor to CIC or the Mapletree and Temasek joint venture would be the latest and largest 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.
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31 May 2017
