Blackstone, the world's largest owner of commercial property, has sold £1.04 billion of assets to listed UK industrial investor Tritax Big Box REIT, partly in exchange for a significant stake in the business.
In a stock market filing Tritax said it has exchanged contracts to buy a high-quality portfolio of logistics assets valued at £1,035 million from real estate funds advised by affiliates of Blackstone Europe. The acquisition is expected to complete on or around 22 October 2025.
The consideration for the acquisition is a mix of cash and newly issued Big Box REIT shares comprising £632 million in cash, to be funded via a new £650 million debt facility, and up to 233.1 million or £375 million of new ordinary shares to be issued at a price of 161p per share, representing a premium of 13.5% to the Big Box REIT closing price of 141.9 pence on 10 October 2025. That is approximately 8.6% of the company's enlarged issued share capital.
Tritax said there was a compelling strategic rationale as it continues to drive performance through its three growth drivers, seeking to: capture record rental reversion and drive further active management; pursue its flexible logistics development pipeline; and deliver exceptional returns through prelet data centre development.
The board believes the acquisition has compelling strategic and financial rationale, particularly with respect to the first of these three growth drivers.
It said the portfolio has significant near-term rental reversion potential that would be difficult to replicate through piecemeal acquisition strategy. The shorter-dated last mile and urban leases provide an "accelerated pathway to capturing this significant rental reversion and are complemented by modern, high specification big box assets generating significant and resilient income".
The assets within the portfolio have an average passing rent of £8.23 per square foot and an estimated rental value of £10.49 per square foot.
The portfolio expands its urban footprint across key micro-locations in the South East and the Midlands, it said.
The acquisition enhances Big Box REIT's position as the UK's leading listed logistics pure-play platform, Tritax said, with a portfolio value of £7.9 billion. Consideration shares have been issued to Blackstone at a premium to the share price as part of the deal.
The portfolio comprises 41 estates and 409 units.
The major part of the sale is the Solstice portfolio which Blackstone brought to market, via DTRE, earlier this year seeking around £430 million. The nine-asset portfolio totalled 3.25 million square feet of warehouse and distribution space across the UK, including sites in the West Midlands.
The largest asset is Tesco’s 700,000-square-foot distribution hub at Fradley Park in Lichfield. Other properties include Rolls-Royce’s 540,000-square-foot logistics and manufacturing site on the outskirts of Glasgow, a Kuehne+Nagel facility in Thatcham, and warehouses in Birmingham and Basildon. Several of the assets were picked up via Blackstone’s 2020 acquisition of logistics platform EPIC in a deal worth over £300 million.
The overall 6.5 million-square-foot portfolio adds to Tritax's urban and small-box offering via a broader range of property sizes and complementary tenant base with 28% existing BBOX clients, Tritax said.
There are 32 urban logistics/small box and nine big-box assets in core regions across the UK with 36% weighting to the South East and 53% weighting to urban logistics market based on contracted rent.
There is significant rental reversion potential with an estimated rental value of £67 million, representing an increase of 28 per cent over passing rent and reflecting a net reversionary yield of 6.4 per cent.
Blackstone will be providing an aggregate £20 million rental reversion bridge, which will act as a bridge between the current passing rent and the portfolio's estimated rental value, spread over three years across the occupied units.
Over the next 12 to 18 months, the company intends to undertake select targeted disposals amounting to approximately £300 million to reduce LTV to the lower end of the 30-35% range.
The acquisition is conditional on BBOX entering into a binding £650 million facility to be provided by Santander corporate and investment banking to fund the cash consideration.
Blackstone will have 2,702,122,165 ordinary shares of 1 pence each in issue. It has agreed to enter into a lock-up arrangement in respect of the consideration shares until 31 December 2026 and a standstill arrangement until 31 December 2027, in each case subject to customary exceptions.
Colin Godfrey, Tritax Big Box CEO, said in a statement: "Aligned with our strategic objectives, this exceptional portfolio offers strong rental reversion and numerous asset management opportunities. It also significantly broadens our client proposition across key urban logistics markets and reinforces our leading position in mission critical big boxes; in combination growing our [gross added value] to over £7.9 billion.
"The acquisition also delivers immediate financial benefits, including mid-single-digit [earnings per share] accretion and enhanced returns well above our cost of capital. I welcome Blackstone as a new 8.6 per cent shareholder in Tritax Big Box; their investment at a material share price premium demonstrates confidence in our team, our leading position in UK logistics, the strong attributes of the transaction and positive outlook for both our business and the market."
James Seppala, chairman of Blackstone Europe and the head of real estate Europe, added: "This transaction reflects our conviction in BBOX and its market-leading position, as well as our continued conviction in the UK logistics sector. This portfolio represents a rare aggregation of high-quality properties with meaningful embedded rental growth potential. The Tritax team's strong asset management track record make them an excellent steward for these assets in the future. Our decision to take an ownership stake in BBOX as part of this transaction reflects our belief in the Company's long-term strategy and outlook, and we are excited by the opportunity to participate in the future success of the enlarged business."
The transaction comes less than two months after Tritax Big Box lost out in a bidding battle with Blackstone for Warehouse REIT, with Blackstone agreeing a £489 million takeover of the UK mid-box industrial investor.
Blackstone's Indurent business recently also launched the sale of an £130 million industrial portfolio in the UK via Newmark. In August, the firm reported it had invested more than £1 billion in industrial developments during its first 12 months of business.
The firm, which was launched in July last year via the combination of the St Modwen industrial business and Industrials REIT, grew its footprint by around 20% during its first year to reach 32 million square feet in July. The firm also leased more than 2.4 million square feet of accommodation across circa 450 deals.
Blackstone's Mileway European business separately owns more than 6,000 warehouse units in the UK.
In its last results update in August, Tritax Big Box REIT said in the six months ended 30 June 2025 it added £5.6 million to its annual contracted rent through rent reviews and asset management initiatives, while its total portfolio value increased to £6.82 billion, up from £6.55 billion in December 2024.
Newmark acted for Tritax on the acquisition of the Solstice portfolio, and as lead real estate advisor to Blackstone on the sale of the remaining assets. DTRE advised Blackstone on the sale of the Solstice portfolio to Tritax and advised Tritax on the acquisition of the remaining assets.
[This story has been updated to include confirmation of transaction].