BlackRock to acquire MGPA

Macquarie Group owns 56% of MGPA and the remaining 44% is held by the private equity firm's management. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but BlackRock said the deal would not impact its earnings per share. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2013.

BlackRock has expanded into private equity, real estate, energy and hedge funds to meet demand for more diverse investment strategies. It currently invests in real estate in the US, UK, Australia and Europe but considers Asian property an increasingly important part of the investment strategy.

"The acquisition complements the recent build out of our global Real Estate securities business. BlackRock in Asia will now provide a full breadth of real estate offerings, from income-to-prime, and private-to-public, including REITS," said Mark McCombe, BlackRock's chairman for Asia-Pacific.

The majority of MGPA's portfolio is spread across Asia, in Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, China and Australia, but the firm also owns property in continental Europe. This year it acquired office buildings in Tokyo, J-Tower in Shanghai, and the Optima Centre in Perth.

MGPA is raising capital for its Asien Spezialfonds fund, which buys buildings that are already let, repositions them and collects the yield from rental and management income. The fund targets institutional investors from German-speaking countries, and has so far raised EUR135 million ($175 million) of its EUR500 million target.

MGPA is focused on real estate funds management, co-investments and separate account mandates for institutional investors, and has raised $8.5 billion total capital to date.

BlackRock has been building its alternatives business through acquisitions. In 2012 it bought European private equity and infrastructure fund-of-funds unit Swiss Re Private Equity Partners (SRPEP), to extend the capabilities of BlackRock Private Equity Partners into infrastructure investing, as well as expanding its European and Asian footprint.

The acquisition helped BlackRock double assets in private-equity funds-of-funds to $15 billion. Earlier this year, the firm decided to exit direct PE investments to focus on its fund-of-funds business.

Blackrock also purchased Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in 2006 and the hedge fund-of-funds business from Quellos Group in 2007.

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• Topics
• Real estate
• Real estate
• MGPA
• BlackRock
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