GIC, Centerbridge Seek Buyout of US Industrial REIT in $660M Deal

GIC has joined forces with US private equity firm Centerbridge Partners on a proposed takeover of Indus Realty Trust, chalking up the Singapore sovereign wealth fund’s third pitch to buy out a North American REIT since September.

Under the terms of the deal, which values the NASDAQ-listed trust at north of $660 million, GIC and Centerbridge would acquire the 85.2 percent of outstanding Indus common stock that Centerbridge does not already own for a cash consideration of $65 per share, Indus said Monday in a release.

Indus owns 42 industrial and logistics buildings spanning 6.1 million square feet (566,709 square metres) across the states of Connecticut, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. The trust is a successor company to tobacco giant Culbro Corporation, and the largest shareholders are entities linked to the family of cigar baron Edgar M Cullman.

The proposed share price represents a 13.5 percent premium to the REIT’s Friday closing price of $57.28 a share, and the stock was up 11.7 percent on Monday. Indus said the board of directors would carefully review the proposal to determine the best path forward that maximises value for the REIT’s shareholders.

Potent Partnerships

Led by co-founder and managing principal Jeff Aronson, Centerbridge Partners has roughly $33 billion in capital under management, including $3.2 billion in commitments across two closed-end real estate funds.

The Manhattan-based firm reached a $2.3 billion closing for its Centerbridge Real Estate Partners Fund II earlier this year, with plans to invest in industrial/logistics, self-storage and specialised storage, digital real estate and residential.

For GIC, the Indus play comes after the Singaporean titan teamed up with a Canadian partner this month on a buyout of Toronto-listed Summit Industrial Income REIT for C$5.9 billion ($4.37 billion).

Together with Dream Industrial REIT, GIC agreed to acquire Summit for C$23.50 per unit in cash, with the deal giving the partners ownership of a portfolio of 160 warehouses spanning 21.59 million square feet across four provinces in Canada.

In September, GIC and Oak Street, a real estate private equity division of New York-based asset manager Blue Owl Capital, signed an agreement to acquire all of the shares in NYSE-listed Store Capital, the only REIT in which Berkshire Hathaway boss Warren Buffett has invested, for $14 billion in cash.

If approved by shareholders, the buyout will give GIC and Oak Street ownership of Store Capital’s portfolio of 3,012 single-tenant commercial and industrial properties across the US.

Sheds and More

The latest warehouse deals continue a string of overseas investments made by GIC this year, including the purchase of a controlling stake in Sani/Ikos Group through a transaction announced in September that valued the Mediterranean luxury resort owner-operator at €2.3 billion (then $2.3 billion).

In October, GIC reportedly invested A$400 million (then $257 million) in a fund managed by Australia’s Gurner Group, which aims to develop a pipeline of condo projects in Sydney worth A$1.75 billion.

That residential deal came after GIC committed to a pair of acquisitions in August when it backed Florida-based Workspace Property Trust in its purchase of a majority stake in 41 US suburban office assets for $1.13 billion, following its purchase of a half stake in an A$800 million ($568 million) Melbourne office project from Australian property giant Charter Hall.