Blackstone REIT to Buy Listed Canadian Industrial REIT in $3.1 Billion Deal
Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, a publicly registered non-traded REIT sponsored by private equity giant The Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX), has agreed to purchase WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust.
Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust, a publicly registered non-traded real estate investment trust, has agreed to purchase WPT Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX: WIR.U), a Canadian REIT that invests in distribution and logistics properties throughout the United States.
Blackstone REIT will acquire all of the outstanding units of WPT through a series of transactions for $22.00 per unit in an all-cash transaction valued at $3.1 billion including the assumption of debt. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.
WPT Industrial REIT oversees a portfolio of 109 properties totaling approximately 37.5 million square feet across 19 U.S. states.
According to the company, the transaction price represents a 17.1 percent premium to the closing price on the Toronto Stock Exchange on August 6, 2021, the last trading day prior to the announcement of the transaction, a 19.5 percent premium to the 30-day volume-weighted average unit price for the period ending August 6, 2021, and a 32.1 percent premium to the current research consensus net asset value per unit estimate of $16.66 per unit.
David Levine, senior managing director at Blackstone said, “Logistics remains one of our highest conviction themes as the sector continues to benefit from strong tailwinds driven by e-commerce. We look forward to expanding our logistics presence across key U.S. markets with the acquisition of this high-quality portfolio that WPT has built.”
On Monday, shares of WPT Industrial REIT closed at $21.93, up 16.77 percent from the previous close.
Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust launched in August 2016 and has raised $26.6 billion in three public offerings as of April 2021. The REIT raised $6.2 billion in the current offering, as of mid-July.
The REIT’s investment strategy is to purchase primarily stabilized, income-generating commercial real estate in the United States, and to a lesser extent, invest in real estate debt and other securities.
As of June 30, 2021, Blackstone REIT owned a property portfolio valued at roughly $42.5 billion and had investments in real estate debt totaling $5.7 billion.
