GreenOak Gets Bids for $2.2 Billion Warehouse Portfolio

(Bloomberg) -- Private equity firm GreenOak Real Estate LP has received bids for a portfolio of European warehouses that could sell for as much as 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion), people with knowledge of the matter said.

The buildings are located in Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Belgium, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private. GreenOak hired advisory firm Eastdil Secured LLC to offer the properties earlier this year. Representatives of both companies declined to comment.

Demand for warehouse space has been climbing across much of the world as the rise of e-commerce increases retailers’ need for distribution facilities. Private equity investors have sought to cash in on this, amassing large portfolios of warehouses that can be sold to sovereign and pension funds eager to deploy large sums on a single deal.

Blackstone Group LP sold Logicor, its European warehouse business, to China Investment Corp. for about 12.25 billion euros in 2017, still the biggest real estate deal ever completed in Europe.

GreenOak, which was founded by a trio of Morgan Stanley veterans in 2010, is in the process of merging with Bentall Kennedy LP. The tie-up will create a business with about $47 billion of assets under management and is expected to be completed in the first half of this year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jack Sidders in London at jsidders@bloomberg.net;Gillian Tan in New York at gtan129@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shelley Robinson at ssmith118@bloomberg.net, ;Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam at sbhaktavatsa@bloomberg.net, ;James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net, Paul Armstrong, Patrick Henry

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