Blackstone Hires Advisers to Sell European Warehouse Business Logicor

Blackstone Group LP has taken new steps to sell its European warehouse business in an initial public offering that could fetch as much as $13 billion, according people familiar with the matter.

The private-equity giant, which began accumulating European logistics properties in 2012 in a company named Logicor, has tapped Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and PJT Partners Inc. to work on the IPO.

The offering of the company, which operates more than 630 properties, could take place as soon as this summer.

Blackstone also has been talking with three different investment groups about possibly selling Logicor to them in a private transaction, people familiar with the matter said. Blackstone prefers this option, which would eliminate the need for an IPO because it would allow the firm to sell its shares faster.

Blackstone created Logicor partly on the assumption that online retail would boost demand for warehouses and distribution centers.

That bet appears to be paying off. Last year, a record EUR12.9 billion worth of logistics properties were sold, up from EUR12 billion in 2015, according to Real Capital Analytics.

Blackstone pulled off a similar strategy in the U.S., where it began building a logistics properties company named IndCor Properties in 2010. The firm in late 2014 sold IndCor to GIC, Singapore's sovereign-wealth fund, for $8.1 billion.

Write to Peter Grant at peter.grant@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 02, 2017 15:55 ET (19:55 GMT)