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Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Carlyle buys Shanghai office tower for $267 million, (NYSE: BX)

Carlyle Group has acquired a Shanghai office building, Central Plaza, for $267 million from Singapore-listed real estate fund Forterra Trust , Forterra said on Wednesday. Private equity buyers are increasing their focus on commercial real estate in China, with Blackstone Group L.P. buying the 50,000-square-metre Huamin Imperial office tower and 5-star hotel complex valued at around $1.1 billion.Carlyle, a U.S.-based private equity firm with $170 billion in assets under management, acquired the building at a discount of around 8 percent to its value at the end of 2012.Central Plaza, which has a 19-storey grade A office tower, is located in Shanghai's central business district and had an occupancy rate of 99.8 percent on Dec. 31.Forterra said the money from the sale of Central Plaza would go to complete another Shanghai office project, repay debt and boost liquidity.

The Blackstone Group L.P. (Blackstone) is a United States-based company that is a manager of private capital and provider of financial advisory services. Shares of BX traded higher by 0.29% or $0.06/share to $20.45. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $11.13 and as high as $21.09. On average, 5288680 shares of BX exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 218770.



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