Publications

- June 1, 2015: Vol. 27, Number 6

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Real estate companies head to the altar

by Loretta Clodfelter

A wave of consolidation has struck the commercial real estate industry, as big-ticket mergers and acquisitions take the fore.

In the biggest deal in recent memory, The Blackstone Group and Wells Fargo & Co. have teamed up to acquire the real estate assets of GE Capital for approximately $23 billion. In a statement, Blackstone global head of real estate Jon Gray references the firm’s “unique scale” (read: giant bags of money), giving it the ability to do mega-deals such as this.

Still, the GE Capital deal was a lot for even a python like Blackstone to swallow, so pieces have been allocated across a number of investment vehicles. Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII, an opportunity fund that has raised more than $15 billion, will acquire the U.S. equity assets for $3.3 billion. Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe IV will acquire the European equity assets for €1.9 billion ($2.1 billion).

On the debt side, Wells Fargo will acquire a portfolio of perf

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