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US - Blackstone buys Equity Office for $39bn in world's largest buyout

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The Blackstone Group has secured the world’s largest leveraged buyout, agreeing a $39bn price (£20.2bn) for Equity Office, the biggest office landlord in the US. Blackstone won the deal after fending off competition from real estate investment trust Vornado, whose final bid at $56 a share was higher than Blackstone’s all-cash offer of $55.50, but would have been paid in cash and stock.

The bidding war that developed between the two was particularly acrimonious, with Vornado making a last-minute offer in January in an effort to trump the all-cash offer agreed by Blackstone in November.

Prior to this deal, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Bain Capital’s $32.1bn purchase last year of HCA, the hospital chain, held the record as the world’s biggest buyout. The Blackstone Group now holds two records, having also raised the world’s largest buyout fund last July, at $15.6bn.

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