Blackstone sees more asset sales, takeovers in US

Seattle

STOCK investors are too bearish on US real estate, and the market's decline probably will lead to more takeovers of publicly traded landlords, along with asset sales, said Jon Gray, global head of real estate at Blackstone Group LP, the largest private equity investor in property worldwide.

"There's a disconnect, and that creates opportunity," Mr Gray said earlier this week at a conference sponsored by the Pension Real Estate Association in San Francisco. The three-day event is taking place at the Westin St Francis hotel on Union Square, one of 17 high-end urban and resort properties owned by Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc, which Blackstone has agreed to buy in a US$6 billion deal.