Fundraising

The real estate arm of The Blackstone Group has sold off its Extended Stay Hotels chain to The Lightstone Group for $8bn.

Morgan Stanley makes its first investment in Brazil via the acquisition of a minority stake in Abyara, a Sao Paolo-based real estate company.

NASDAQ-listed Apollo Investment Corporation has acquired Innkeepers USA Trust for $1.5bn in cash.

UK-listed private equity group 3i has been linked with a £375m bid for Erinaceous Group, a scandal-hit property management business.

Doubling its holdings in the Windy City, New York-based KTR Capital Partners has acquired 23 buildings near O’Hare airport for $107m.

The Sainsbury family seems to have triumphed in its bid to keep the UK retailer out of private equity hands, after the last remaining members of the buyout consortium admitted defeat in their battle to take the company private.

Tamara Mellon, the founder and president of Jimmy Choo Limited, will join the board of the newly acquired fashion house Hilco.

The US secondaries specialist has invested in two pan-European funds, one on a secondary basis and the other as a primary investor in a new fund run by the same manager.

The private equity real estate firm has acquired a portfolio of primarily New York City restaurants, as well as formed a joint venture with the restaurants’ owner, BR Guest, to develop new eateries for its hotel portfolio.

Shares in Sainsbury’s, a UK grocery chain at the center of a controversial £10bn private equity bid, slid this morning as two more of the buyout firms involved reportedly pulled out of the deal. The news followed continuing opposition from pension fund trustees and minority shareholders.