The Blackstone Group is said to be close to finalizing an agreement to sell IndCor Properties, its industrial real estate platform. The prospective buyer is a group of investors led by GIC Private Limited, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, which plans to acquire the company for more than $8 billion.
The private offer by the partnership, which reportedly is seeking $5 billion in debt to finance the transaction, is an unexpected turn of events for IndCor. The Chicago-based industrial landlord filed for an initial public offering with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in September and was planning to raise about $1 billion through the transaction, which would have valued the company at approximately $8 billion. Bloomberg was the first to report the potential IndCor sale.
IndCor still could go public, however, should the deal between Blackstone and GIC fall through. However, a private sale likely would allow Blackstone to exit and realize a profit on its investment more quickly than an IPO, the Bloomberg article noted. The firm has been selling down its shares in the other real estate companies it has taken public over the past year, including Brixmor, Hilton and Extended Stay. Indeed, earlier this week, Blackstone sold $2.25 billion worth of shares in Hilton.
Blackstone formed IndCor in 2010, when it saw an opportunity to buy quality warehouse and logistics assets from distressed sellers during the bottom of the real estate cycle. Since then, Blackstone has grown the platform to become one of the largest US industrial owners, managing approximately 117 million square feet in more than 29 markets across the US.
IndCor typically buys portfolios of at least one million square feet, and some of its largest transactions have included the acquisition of a 16.3 million-square-foot portfolio from DEXUS Property Group and the 23.3 million-square-foot CalWest portfolio from Walton Street Capital, both in 2012. If it were to go public, IndCor would be the largest REIT focused exclusively on US warehouse and logistics properties.
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