Blackstone embarks on mega-merge of two warehouse landlords
Blackstone is set to merge two of the firm’s warehouse landlords, creating one of the largest owners of logistics properties in the country.
St Modwen Logistics and Industrials REIT will be combined, along with assets acquired through 25 other deals, creating a company called Indurent.
Blackstone took over St Modwen and Industrials REIT in 2021 and 2023 respectively, delisting them from the London Stock Exchange.
The sale last year valued Industrials REIT at over £500m, a premium of 42.2 per cent of what they were trading at when they were listed.
The new company will own over 200 properties spanning about 26 million square feet, similar in size to Serco’s UK business by number of assets and square foot.
The news comes in the wake of three proposed mega-mergers between real estate investment trusts over the last month.
LXi and Londonmetric announced plans to merge last month and were swiftly followed up by plans for Custodian Property Income REIT and Abrdn Property Income Trust to combine.
Another planned merger was announced this morning, as Tritax Big Box and UK Commercial Property agreed to create the UK’s fourth largest real estate investment trust.
James Seppala, head of European real estate at Blackstone, said: “UK logistics is a high conviction theme for Blackstone given our portfolio’s exceptionally strong performance and favourable long-term fundamentals in the sector.
“As a pure-play UK logistics company with an exceptional team, Indurent will enable us to continue to capitalise on opportunities in the sector and create value for our investors.”