Blackstone has sealed the deal to buy Canadian real estate investment trust Dream Global for C$6.2bn (£3.78bn).
The all-cash takeover for the Reit, which owns 200 office and warehouse properties across western Europe, is the latest in a flurry of multibillion-dollar deals by Blackstone’s property arm, which closed a record $20.5bn in commitments last week.
The new fundraising is the largest-ever for a real estate fund, and increases the war chest Blackstone has amassed to invest in property to more than $36bn.
The acquisition adds to Blackstone’s expanding portfolio of logistics properties, which real estate co-chief executive Ken Caplan has called the private equity group’s “highest conviction” trade.
Dream Global stockholders will receive C$16.79 in cash for each share they hold, an 18.5 per cent premium to Friday’s closing stock price. The two companies expect to complete the deal by December, following a shareholder vote by the Toronto-based Reit.
A nearly decade-long boom in real estate has swelled Blackstone’s property fund coffers to $154bn, making it the second-largest of the firm’s four main investment strategies after private equity.
