Blackstone has poached Simon Carter from Lone Star’s Quintain to become Logicor’s new chief financial officer. He will join next week.
Blackstone kicked off the process to sell or float Logicor with Eastdil Secured and Goldman Sachs late last year. Carter will play an important role in determining the €13bn (£11.3bn) company’s future and overseeing one of Europe’s most eagerly watched real estate deals.
Carter has left Quintain after only 18 months as finance director but that period has been highly eventful. Two months after he joined in May 2015, Lone Star made an approach to take the company private. It completed the £745m deal in October.
At Quintain he led its £800m refinancing last November that saw Wells Fargo, AIG and CPPIB put together the UK’s largest PRS development funding, allowing it to build 6,000 flats at its Wembley Park project.
One of the UK real estate industry’s most highly regarded finance directors, Carter was previously head of strategy and a member of the executive committee at British Land and also held the roles of head of treasury and capital markets and corporate finance executive at the REIT.
He is being replaced at Quintain by commercial finance director Michael Jenkins, while James Saunders, chief operating officer, has joined the board.
Angus Dodd, chief executive at Quintain said: “Simon has been a great asset to Quintain over the last 18 months. He has been instrumental in a number of transformational deals and we wish him well in his new role. We are extremely fortunate in having an excellent successor in Michael Jenkins and I am pleased to also announce that James Saunders, COO will be joining our board of directors.”
Early talks are ongoing with potential bidders for Logicor, which include GIC, as Blackstone looks to determine whether the company will be sold in a trade sale or listed.
• Blackstone is considering making an offer of $8.6bn (£7bn) for Global Logistics Properties, the Singapore-listed logistics company that is the largest in Asia. Blackstone is competing against a consortium between Hopu Investment Management, Hillhouse Capital and China Investment Corporation – a major investor in Blackstone funds and prospective interested party in Logicor – and Warburg Pincus. The bidding has been prompted by GIC, GLP’s largest shareholder with 37%, requesting it undertake a strategic review last month.
• To send feedback, e-mail david.hatcher@estatesgazette.com or tweet @hatcherdavid or @estatesgazette
