Blackstone recapitalised its Spanish hotel group, bought more student housing and refinanced industrial assets in a rare CMBS.
The deal sizes may be relatively small for Blackstone Group, but they underscore how the US giant continues to stand out as an active investor/asset manager in European real estate. This week Blackstone’s IQ Student Accommodation business snapped up two prime schemes for a combined £370 mln in London and Edinburgh.
In a second transaction, the group raised capital for its rapidly-expanding Hotel Investment Partners via a 35% stake sale of the business to Singapore’s GIC, valuing the business at €4 bn. Blackstone said it took the decision to sell the stake because it made sense to bring in equity rather than pay more for debt at a time when leverage for many asset types is costly.
Blackstone was the sponsor in a third deal in the last week, when Stark Financing, a circa £260 mln securitisation, successfully priced in the debt capital markets. Stark’s underlying assets are 103 of the industrial and logistics properties that Blackstone owns via its acquisition of Industrials Reit in June for £511 mln.
Opportunities to lend spurred two boutique fund managers to join the crowd of investment managers who have announced or raised capital for real estate credit since January 2023. Newport Logistics and Coral Capital become the 26th and 27th to announce pure debt-focused vehicles this year.
We also track three new assets on the market, in the UK, Dublin and Hamburg, plus the other deals which completed this week.
