US private equity group Blackstone is buying Toronto-listed Pure Industrial Real Estate Trust (PIRET) for US$3.8bn (€3.2bn).
The Canadian industrial REIT said it has agreed to sell all of its units to Blackstone Property Partners (BPP) at $8.10 each in an all-cash deal that includes debt.
BPP is Blackstone’s core-plus real estate fund, which it launched in 2015. At the end of last year, Jon Gray, Blackstone’s head of real estate, told IPE Real Assets that the core-plus business represented only $18bn of its $111bn in real estate assets under management, but was widening ”the scope of where we can invest where we see value”.
PIRET, which invests predominantly in Canadian logistics assets (less than a third of its portfolio is in the US), was listed in August 2007.
The price being paid per unit for PIRET represents a 21% premium to its last stock closing price. The amount also implies a 27% premium to net-asset value estimates of $6.40 per unit, PIRET said.
Rick Turner, the chairman of PIRET’s board of trustees and chairman of the special committee of independent trustees set up to for the deal, said PIRET had “accomplished tremendous growth” over 10 years.
“Since inception, we have generated a total return in excess of 345% and we have built a platform that has made us a leader in the Canadian industrial REIT space.”
Turner said the board of trustees believes that the all-cash transaction provides significant value for our unitholders and unanimously recommends that they vote in favour of the transaction.
The deal, which is expected to complete in the second quarter of this year, is subject to customary conditions, including 66% of unitholders voting in favour of the transaction.
