Private equity firm Colony Capital is in exclusive negotiations to buy commercial real estate manager NorthStar Asset Management Group and its REIT unit NorthStar Realty Finance Corp in an all stock merger.
'The three companies believe that the combination would create a world-class diversified real estate and investment management equity REIT with significant scale, deep management talent, and the opportunity to generate substantial revenue and expense synergies,' the companies said in a joint statement.
There is no assurance a transaction between the parties will occur, they added.
NorthStar Asset Management, spun off from NorthStar Realty Finance in 2014, had a market value of about $2.25 bn (€1.97 bn). The firm has been fairly active in Europe in the recent past.
Last summer, it bought the iconic Trianon office tower in Frankfurt for €540 mln, reflecting a yield of 8%.
The 186-metre-high Trianon skyscraper was put on the market in late 2014 by its US owners Madison and Morgan Stanley.
In late 2014 it bought a 186,000 m2 portfolio across Europe from German asset manager SEB Immobilien for around €1.1 bn.
