The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and LaSalle Investment Management have bought Chicago-based real estate investment trust CenterPoint Properties in a $3.4bn (e2.9bn) deal.
CalEast Industrial Investors - whose members include the $199.8bn pension fund and LaSalle - negotiated a deal worth $50 a share in cash, a 9% premium on the previous day’s closing price.
CenterPoint was a publicly-traded REIT and claimed to be the largest industrial property company in the Chicago area. CalEast invests in warehouses and related real estate and is managed by LaSalle.
The move builds on a six-year industrial property joint venture between CenterPoint and CalEast called CenterPoint Venture.
CenterPoint chief executive Mike Mullen said: “This transaction maximises value for shareholders as an all-cash sale with no financing contingency. The price achieved reflects the significant value of the operating platform that we have created.”
LaSalle chief executive Lynn Thurber added: “Through CalEast’s acquisition of CenterPoint, we gain access to an attractive warehouse portfolio, a high quality land bank, and an outstanding management team that has played a pioneering role in the rapidly emerging intermodal logistics industry.”
Mike McCook, senior investment officer for real estate at CalPERS, said: “Rapid growth in global trade is driving significant change in the warehouse requirements and logistics strategies of companies around the world.”

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