Blackstone €3.3 billion acquisition of OfficeFirst

Overview:

• Private equity firm Blackstone acquired OfficeFirst from its insolvent parent company, German real estate business IVG Immobilien, for €3.3 billion. 
• IVG's subsidiary, which holds the group's core assets - a portfolio of 97 commercial properties across a number of large German citiies, was spun-off in June to enable the company's owners to take it public or sell it. 
• In the month before the sale was announced (October 2016), OfficeFirst was close to an IPO, but the deal was postponed because of poor market conditions. 
• Blackstone, which had an offer for OfficeFirst tuned down before preperation of the IPO began, paid roughly the book value for the portfolio, a little more than it initially offered. 
• IVG entered into insolvency proceedings in 2013, avoiding liquidation when a group of hedge funds, including York Capital, Anchorage and Davidson Kempner, which were among the company's former creditors, acquired the business.

Ben Naylor - Regional Editor