One of the world’s largest real estate investors is in advanced talks with a London-listed group about a £1bn logistics deal – weeks after the duo were embroiled in a public bidding war for another industrial property group.
Sky News has learnt that Blackstone, the American private equity behemoth, is nearing an agreement to sell roughly £1bn of logistics assets to Tritax Big Box Reit, which has a market capitalisation of about £3.65bn.
Property industry sources said this weekend that while key details were yet to be finalised, a deal could see Blackstone receiving part of the consideration for the assets in the form of equity in Tritax Big Box.
Depending on the portion of the deal paid for in stock, Blackstone could emerge as one of Tritax Big Box’s largest shareholders.
An announcement about an agreement between the two companies could come within days, the people said.
A transaction would come less than two months after Tritax Big Box bowed out of the bidding for Warehouse Reit after Blackstone tabled an offer worth close to £500m for the company.
Talks between Blackstone and Tritax Big Box about an asset portfolio deal are said to have been initiated soon after the resolution of the Warehouse Reit battle.
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Tritax Big Box is among the companies which have emerged to take advantage of soaring demand for industrial warehouse and logistics assets.
Its sites include a 2.3 million square foot facility on land previously occupied by the Littlebrook power station in Kent, with much of that space now pre-let to Amazon and Ikea.
Blackstone, which recently committed to investing £100bn in the UK in the coming years, and Tritax Big Box both declined to comment on Sunday.
