BY Richard Summerfield
Funds managed by Blackstone Group have agreed to acquire Dream Global Real Estate Investment Trust for $4.7bn.
The deal will see Dream stockholders receive C$16.79 in cash for each share they hold, a premium of 18.5 percent to Friday’s closing stock price. The deal is expected to close by December.
The deal needs at least 66.67 percent approval from Dream Global’s shareholders. Its board of trustees unanimously approved the deal and recommended the shareholders vote in favour of it.
“This transaction is the culmination of the tremendous growth that Dream Global has achieved since its 2011 IPO,” said Detlef Bierbaum, chairman of Dream Global’s board of trustees. “At a time when the Western European real estate market is becoming increasingly competitive, this transaction provides premium value to unitholders. Upon completion of the Transaction, Dream Global will have increased its equity market capitalisation by nearly eight times and will have delivered total annualised returns of 15 percent to our unitholders, since inception, which exceed both the Canadian and European REIT benchmarks by approximately 60 percent and are competitive against the best managed real estate private equity funds and pension funds globally, over the same time period.”
“Today’s announcement can be attributed to Dream Global’s high-quality portfolio of properties located in key markets in Western Europe and the strength of our property management platform, as evidenced by our strong relationships with tenants, partners and lenders,” said Jane Gavan, president and chief executive of Dream Global. “By combining a disciplined approach to capital allocation with active asset management, we have established Dream as one of the most respected brands for investing in Western European office properties.”
“We are delighted to be acquiring Dream Global, a high-quality and diversified portfolio of office and logistics assets in Western Europe, which has been created by Dream over the last eight years,” said James Seppala, head of Blackstone Real Estate Europe. “This transaction is an exciting opportunity for Blackstone to expand its existing office and logistics portfolios in some of the largest and most important markets in the region.”
Canadian REIT Dream Global, which was formerly known as Dundee International REIT, started out by acquiring properties leased to Deutsche Post, Germany’s post office. Today the firm owns over 200 office and industrial properties in key markets in Western Europe with a particular focus on Germany and the Netherlands.
News: Dream Global REIT to be bought by Blackstone funds in $4.7 billion deal