The fund would be Blackstone’s first raised solely for investment in property on the Continent
US investor Blackstone is to raise $1bn of equity for a fund to target European property.
The private equity group has employed investment bank Donaldson Luftkin & Jenrette to structure and raise equity for the fund. Blackstone is expected to invest around $400m with the remainder being raised from US and European investors. Blackstone has invested actively in Europe through its global funds but this would be the group’s first Europe-focused fund.
Details of what the fund will invest in are not known but John Krukal, who heads up the London office for Blackstone, last month told EuroProperty that the group’s European investments would concentrate on four sectors: portfolios arising from corporations’ divestments of property assets, hotels, distribution, and corporate acquisitions such as discounted quoted companies.
Historically, the group’s real estate activities have focused on the UK and France.
There is also likely to be synergy between Blackstone’s other major European push into the technology sector and the real estate team’s work with corporate property portfolios.
DLJ has been actively raising money for a series of European funds. The company advised Doughty Hanson, which has now closed its European fund with $625m of equity. The bank is also raising €1bn for Soros Real Estate Partners’ fund.
The group is headed in London by Christophe de Taurines and Ray Terrafranca, both of whom moved from LaSalle Investment Management in March.
Last month Blackstone Real Estate Partners II, the group’s property fund, sold the La Défense landmark Tour Descartes off a yield of around 6%.
The 78,000m2 tower was bought by a consortium of two French groups – Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations and Foncière Pimonts – and German insurer Victoria. Tour Descartes is the HQ of IBM Europe and IBM France, and was Blackstone’s first acquisition in France.
