Blackstone, Abu Dhabi's Lunate set up $5B GCC logistics investment platform
The new platform will capitalize on the growing logistics sector in the Gulf.
Blackstone and Abu Dhabi’s Lunate have launched a new platform that will target logistics investments worth $5 billion across the Gulf Cooperation Council, the US asset manager said in a statement Monday.
Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager, one that invests in nonpublic areas such as private equity and real estate. It manages $1.2 trillion in assets with global investments across sectors including real estate, private equity, credit, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, secondaries and hedge funds. Lunate is a UAE-based global investment firm with more than $110 billion in assets.
What happened: The new platform, Gulf Logistics Infrastructure Development Enterprise, will focus on greenfield developments as well as portfolio acquisitions and sale‑and‑leaseback transactions, the statement said. Greenfield developments are newly established projects in-country, while brownfield developments involve acquiring existing developments. A sale-and-leaseback deal is one in which a company sells an asset to an investor who immediately leases it back to the seller.
Blackstone said that other strategic partners in the GCC will also participate in the enterprise, which will have teams across the region supporting its expansion.
