In the latest sign of increased interest by global investors in Asian real estate opportunities, BlackRock reportedly acquired private equity firm MGPA last week for an undisclosed amount.
Already the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock is joining a trend towards greater involvement by US private equity concerns in acquiring Chinese property assets. During April, private equity firm Carlyle Group bought a downtown Shanghai commercial building for US$266, and the Blackstone Group bought a 50,000 sqm commercial tower in Shanghai during October last year. According to a statement from the company, BlackRock managed $3.9 trillion of assets globally at the end of March.
Now the private equity giant is poised to take over MGPA’s extensive portfolio of properties in Asia while adding the firms 220 team members in Asia and Europe to BlackRock’s existing team.
New York based BlackRock currently manages US$13 billion in real estate focused funds, however, despite recent investments, the majority of these assets are in the US and UK and the firm lacks offices in Asia.. For MGPA, nearly two-thirds of its assets are Asia-centric.
Focussing primarily on real estate, MGPA currently manages about US$12 billion of funds. BlackRock, which expects to close the deal for MGPA by the third quarter of 2013.
Leave a Reply