Nary a week goes by without Blackstone making headlines. The firm’s next deal, though, may be one of its biggest yet.
The buyout giant is reportedly near an agreement to sell European warehouse operator Logicor to China Investment Corporation, a sovereign wealth fund, for €12 billion. Expected to be finished as early as this week, the deal would mark the largest PE-backed exit from a privately held company so far this year in the US and Europe, per the PitchBook Platform.
Blackstone has backed Logicor since 2012, when it founded the logistics and distributions business with operations in the US, France and Poland. Earlier this year, Blackstone had reportedly enlisted banks for a possible IPO of the business at a valuation of up to €13 billion. The firm seems to have decided that a sale, though, is the more attractive option.
In a separate deal, Blackstone has bought a stake in Entic, a Florida-based pr ovider of software designed to improve energy efficiency in buildings. And in yet another deal, the firm has partnered with Orion Mine Finance to invest between $400 million and $450 million in Lundin Gold (TSX: LUG), a Canadian mining company based out of Vancouver, Canada. The funds will be used to back the company’s Fruta del Norte gold exploration project in Ecuador.
Blackstone has been the fifth most active PE investor in the world since the start of 2017, with 25 completed deals, per the PitchBook Platform. Few firms, though, have been associated with larger dollar amounts and bigger names. Blackstone recently unveiled plans for a $40 billion infrastructure fund that will include a sizeable commitment from Saudi Arabia, and a few weeks ago the firm became involved in the high-profile sagas of Tribune Media and J. Crew.
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Article by Adam Lewis, PitchBook
