Australia’s ISPT and Singapore-based real estate investor Mapletree are believed to be among those on a narrowed down list of parties bidding for Blackstone’s $3.5bn Milestone Logistics Group.
Bids for the $3.5bn portfolio of properties are due Wednesday, and after more than 50 parties were understood to have entered the data room, it is understood that about 10 parties are prepared to lob a first round offer.
Mapletree owns and manages about $60bn of real estate across the office, retail, logistics, industrial and residential sectors.
It is owned by the Singapore government-owned investor Temasek Holdings and is no stranger to the Australian market when it comes to real estate investment.
Temasek also has a range of stakes in other Australian assets.
ISPT, meanwhile, has a $19.2bn portfolio of Australian commercial and residential property investments.
It owns a raft of high profile Australian properties such as Sydney’s World Square office complex and Westpac Place on Sydney’s Kent Street along with shopping centres such as Westfield Doncaster in Melbourne.
Working on the sales process of the Blackstone business is JLL and Eastdil Secured as investment banks Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan also test interest for a $1.2bn-plus initial public offering.
Other groups believed to be lobbing an offer are the Warburg Pincus-backed ESR, as revealed by DataRoom at the start of this month, along with Dexus Property Group, GPT Group, Charter Hall, Centuria, Logos property group and Singapore private equity firm GLP.
Logos has hired Moelis, while Centuria is working with Highbury Partnership.
On offer are 45 prized industrial properties at a time that the sector remains in strong demand due to the move to online shopping amid the global pandemic.
Final bids are due late March or early April.
A challenge for international buyers could be opposition from the Foreign Investment Review Board, although some believe such a risk is low.
While many in the market believe that a float is the most likely exit option for Blackstone, which is keen to retain some exposure to the portfolio and will probably pay down debt, others believe that trade buyers will deliver knockout prices and win the private equity owners over.
Blackstone could offload the portfolio for about $4bn on an enterprise value basis, making it out of reach for equity investors.
The equity value for the business — should it list — is expected to be between $2.7bn and $3.5bn.
Run by former AMP Capital real estate head Chris Judd and chaired by former Australian Morgan Stanley boss Steve Harker, Milestone Logistics has more than 90 tenants, including Woolworths, Lineage Logistics, Toll and WesTrac.
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