The ink isn’t dry on Blackstone Group’s $18 billion buy of a U.S. warehouse portfolio, and it’s already negotiating to sell part of it.
The company, which finished its transition into a corporation this month, is drumming up interest from potential buyers for pieces of the GLP Pte portfolio, Bloomberg reported. Prologis is in private discussions to buy one such portfolio, valued at $1 billion.
Blackstone’s $18.7 billion deal for the Singaporean company’s 179 million-square-foot warehouse portfolio is one of the largest industrial real estate deals ever.
Selling non-core or non-strategic pieces of a recently required purchase isn’t uncommon. Blackstone applied the same strategy in 2007 when it sold off parts of its $40 billion acquisition of Equity Office Properties Trust.
On the whole, the warehouse sector has seen little supply, high demand and high prices, with available industrial and logistics real estate rising slightly for the first time in 34 quarters, according to a CBRE report. Demand for warehouse and distribution reached an 18-year high in 2018.
Large owners are optimistic that there will continue to be institutional investment in industrial real estate. As Prologis negotiates for a piece of Blackstone’s new holdings, it’s also in advanced talks to buy another $4 billion portfolio from Black Creek Group which spans 37.6 million square feet.
Colony Capital is weighing the sale of its $5 billion industrial in holdings on the heels of selling another warehouse portfolio for $104.6 million. [Bloomberg] — Georgia Kromrei