Private equity races for Reits

Driven by pension funds desperate to meet their investment allocations to real estate, private equity firms are buying up US real estate investment trusts as fast as they can. And with cheap and plentiful debt at their disposal, they’re happy to pay large premiums too. Kathryn Tully reports.

CAN THERE BE any doubts about the massive investor demand for US commercial property? Certainly not if one considers the activities of private equity firms, which are so desperate to get their hands on real estate assets that they are buying up real estate investment trusts like there’s no tomorrow.

This February, Blackstone Group announced that it was buying a large US hotel Reit, Meristar Hospitality Corporation, for $2.6 billion, Less than two weeks later, Blackstone said it was also acquiring office Reit CarrAmerica Realty Corp for $5.6

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