Chinese investors are flexing their muscles overseas, completing large portfolio acquisitions in Europe and the United States.
In the largest-ever real estate deal in Europe, China’s sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corp., has put some of the weight of its more than $810 billion in assets under management behind the €12.25 billion ($13.81 billion) acquisition of Logicor, the pan-European logistics company owned by real estate funds managed by Blackstone.
Spanning 17 countries, Logicor owns and operates a 147 million-square-foot portfolio of 630 high-quality logistics assets, with 70 percent of its portfolio concentrated along main transport corridors near large population centers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Southern Europe.
CIC now stands to benefit from ongoing growth in e-commerce, which relies heavily on the logistics sector. The sale also scraps an IPO plan for Logicor that had been under strategic consideration for the firm.