CBRE Global Investors is the latest suitor to emerge for the $8.9bn Investa office property platform, with information memorandums due to be sent out for a sale within weeks.
It is understood the US real estate giant is already undertaking work on a potential acquisition of Investa from Morgan Stanley Real Estate, which confirmed last week it had Morgan Stanley and UBS working on a potential sale.
Macquarie Capital and Fort Street are acting for the listed Investa Office Fund.
CBRE has $90.6bn of global funds under management and a property securities business worth about $20bn. It is a dominant commercial real estate agent in the Australian market.
In 2011, it purchased ING Real Estate Investment Management in Europe and Asia, as well as Clarion Real Estate Securities in the US.
The group will likely compete with other parties anticipated to enter the contest, including Canadian investment giant Brookfield and the Industry Superannuation Property Trust (ISPT).
Private equity contender Blackstone will likely join with Canadian real estate partner Ivanhoe Cambridge to bolster its firepower.
An acquisition would enable a buyer access to stable earnings from rent and management fees in a low interest-rate environment.
Morgan Stanley is widely seen to have overpaid during its 2007 takeover of the business for $6.6bn. The deal equated to a yield of between 5 and 6 per cent at a time interest rates were about 6 per cent.
Other parties trying to buy Investa are Singaporean real estate giants Mapletree and Ascendas, along with a Goldman Sachs-advised consortium comprising LaSalle Investment Management and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
On offer is Investa Office, which manages a $8.9bn commercial real estate portfolio that includes some of the country’s most iconic towers, such as Sydney’s Deutsche Bank Place. Within the business are $3.5bn of offices directly owned by Investa, while management rights for the entire platform are valued at up to $180m.
Also included are 14 Australian residential and industrial land projects within Investa Land.
This article first appeared in The Australian Business Review.