Blackstone has bought a portfolio of French assets from a vehicle managed by M7 Real Estate that could lead to the establishment of a new pan-European platform.
The US private equity giant has bought a €112.5m (£98m) portfolio of 26 light industrial assets in France, mostly around Paris, from M7’s MStar joint venture with Starwood Capital, which M7 will continue to asset manage.
It is understood that a broadening of the tie-up is being considered that could see Blackstone buy out more of the vehicles that M7 manages and establish a much larger business. It would be injected with capital from Blackstone which M7 would help source opportunities for and asset manage.
Blackstone is currently investing funds in Europe from its $15.8bn Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII fund, the largest ever global real estate fund raised in 2015, and its Blackstone Real Estate Partners Europe V, which held a €5.5bn first close last June.
M7, headed by chief executive Richard Croft, has grown dramatically since it was established in 2009 and now has €2.3bn of assets under management totalling 43m sq ft and offices in 13 countries. It has 21 operating mandates with partners including Oaktree, Goldman Sachs and HIG Capital and in 2015 formed a strategic alliance with a Hong Kong-based family, understood to be the Kwoks.
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