Blackstone hires agent to handle $4bn shopping centre portfolio sale

Aerial shot of Top Ryde City Shopping Centre.

Blackstone has moved to hire investment banks and a real estate agent to sell its $4 billion portfolio of shopping centres after attempts to shift the assets in a “soft” sales process run prior to Christmas failed, DataRoom can reveal.

The Australian first flagged Blackstone’s plans to sell its shopping centres last year.

While Blackstone denies that the portfolio was on the market last year, others say that a number of superannuation funds were approached around November and December as prospective buyers as part of what has been described as a “soft” sales process.

It is also believed that the private equity giant will have no alternative but to try to float the business after advisers last year made unsuccessful attempts to get a superannuation fund or an Asian buyer on the hook.

Apparently, groups such as the GPT Group and Mirvac Group have also sidestepped Blackstone’s shopping centres because they are uncomfortable about buying back the assets they previously owned.

Blackstone — known for its uncanny turnaround skills — picked up the troublesome Top Ryde shopping mall in Sydney’s northern suburbs after it collapsed into receivership amid the global financial crisis and has managed to transform the asset into a fully functioning shopping mall.

But part of the problem for Blackstone is that buyers see little upside in acquiring assets from the group that is considered as somewhat expert at creating value from a deal.

This is particularly the case at a time that retailers are struggled from major industry disrupters such as Amazon, which has hired CBRE to find distribution centres as part of its greater push into the Australian market, and when many are facing collapse, leaving landlords in the lurch.

Industry superannuation funds likely to have been approached include ISPT, MTAA and potentially Australian Super and QIC.

JPMorgan and UBS are handling the sale, while JLL is understood to be the real estate agent that Blackstone has hired.