Blackstone has entered into an agreement to acquire assets from three of GLP’s U.S. funds for a purchase price of $18.7 billion.
This overall transaction totals 179 million square feet of urban, infill logistics assets, nearly doubling the size of Blackstone’s existing U.S. industrial footprint. Blackstone Real Estate’s global opportunistic BREP strategy will acquire 115 million square feet for $13.4 billion and its income-oriented non-listed REIT, Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT), will acquire 64 million square feet for $5.3 billion.
Ken Caplan, global co-head of Blackstone Real Estate, commented, “Logistics is our highest conviction global investment theme today, and we look forward to building on our existing portfolio to meet the growing e-commerce demand. Our global scale and ability to leverage differentiated investment strategies allowed us to provide a one-stop solution for GLP’s high-quality portfolio.”
Frank Cohen, chairman and CEO of BREIT, added, “These properties are a complementary addition to our stabilized commercial real estate portfolio, which is oriented toward our highest conviction themes, such as logistics.”
Established in Singapore, GLP is a global investment manager with $64 billion of assets under management in real estate and private equity funds. Its real estate fund platform is one of the largest in the world, spanning 785 million square feet. GLP entered the U.S. real estate market in 2015 and through a series of major acquisitions became the second-largest owner of logistics real estate assets in the country by aggregating high-quality, modern logistics assets across 36 major markets. GLP will remain invested in the U.S. across real estate, technology, and credit and is committed long-term to the U.S. market.
Blackstone’s real estate business has approximately $140 billion in investor capital under management. It operates around the globe with investments and people in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Blackstone is one of the leading owners of logistics properties today with assets in North America, Europe and Asia. In the U.S., Blackstone built and sold Indcor and successfully replicated this strategy with Logicor in Europe. Inclusive of this transaction, Blackstone has acquired more than 930 million square feet of logistics globally since 2010.
