Och-Ziff-backed group fends off 11th hour bid for industrial portfolio

After a joint bid by Delancey and Citigroup threatened to derail Max Property Group’s efforts to buy a £232m industrial portfolio, the London-listed firm has received assurances that the deal will still go through.

Max Property Group, the London-listed property investment firm backed by New York-based Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, said its pursuit of a UK industrial portfolio will end in a purchase as planned.

The deal between collapsed property company Industrious and Max Property was thrown into doubt after an eleventh hour bid for the portfolio was lodged by London-based private equity real estate firm Delancey and Citigroup, a lender to Industrious. The transaction would be Max Property’s first since listing on London’s junior AiM stock exchange earlier this year.

In a statement, Max Property said that Ernst & Young, the receivers to Industrious, had confirmed that the original £232 million ($376 million; €264 million) deal, for 7.6 million square feet of industrial space agreed earlier this month, will go ahead as planned on 7 October.

Max Property Group raised £211 million in an IPO in May.