According to people with knowledge of the matter, Blackstone Group LP has managed to reach an agreement to sell a Manhattan office tower to Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc. at the price of $2.25 billion.
The people close to the process, who asked not to be identified, because the deal is still not officially announced, reported that Ivanhoe signed a contract for the acquisition of 1095 Avenue of the Americas. The sale of the 42-story building is considered as the largest one in the property business in the U.S. since the General Motors Building located in New York was purchased by Boston Properties Inc. six years ago in a $2.8-billion deal.
The sale of the property comes as a confirmation of the recent trend of foreign investors becoming the major buyers of high-quality real estates located on key points in the U.S. The buyer Ivanhoe is under the control of the public pension-fund manager Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, which turned its real-estate arm into one of the major foreign investors, who have been purchasing multi-story buildings in New York and Seattle.
In 2013 the Vice President for U.S. investments at Ivanhoe Cambridge, Adam Adamakakis, said in an interview, cited by Bloomberg: “The New York market alone has more office inventory than the entire country of Canada.”
On the other hand, the transaction for Blackstone marks the companys latest decision to dispose of the property, which it got after the $49-billion leveraged buyout of the Equity Officer Properties Trust of Sam Zell seven years ago. Over the last few years the company managed to sell many of its properties located in large U.S. cities.
Blackstone Group LP was up 0.50% to close at $32.02 per share yesterday, marking a one-year increase of 16.18%. The company is valued at $36.87 billion. According to CNN Money, the 14 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Blackstone Group LP have a median target of $39.00, with a high estimate of $44.00 and a low estimate of $35.00. The median estimate represents a +21.80% increase from the last price of $32.02.
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