Blackstone Reportedly In Talks To Acquire $2B Retail REIT

The world’s largest alternative asset manager is in early-stage talks to acquire a retail REIT with 95 community shopping centers along the West Coast. 

Blackstone is eyeing an acquisition of San Diego-based Retail Opportunity Investments Corp., Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources. 

Blackstone declined to comment on the news, and ROIC didn't respond to a request for comment.

It comes after ROIC, which owns 10.7M SF of supermarket and drugstore-anchored retail centers, lost more than 10% of its value over the last year, Reuters reports. 

ROIC’s stock plummeted after opening Wednesday, down 3.5% as of 12:30 p.m. ET. It now has a market cap of around $1.94B. 

The REIT reported $3.5B in total real estate assets and $1.4B of principal debt outstanding as of the end of the second quarter and said its portfolio was 97% leased. Its Q2 net income of $7.4M was down from $9.9M in the same period last year. 

Retail hasn’t been a top focus for Blackstone over the last decade, but that seems to be changing. At the World Retail Congress convention in Paris this spring, Blackstone Senior Managing Director Andrea Drasites said the firm is looking at the retail sector this year and sees a number of macroeconomic factors that "will create opportunities."

She added that the retail market "is not for the faint of heart."

The company acquired a block of luxury shops in London for £227M this spring, leased to watch and shoemakers.

Outside of retail, Blackstone has been going in aggressively on multifamily and single-family rental acquisitions. At the beginning of the year, the company purchased Sunbelt-based single-family rental developer Tricon Residential — with 38,000 homes — for $3.5B. 

This summer, it acquired Apartment Income REIT Corp. for $10B, with a 76-community portfolio in which it plans to invest $400M.