BlackRock Seeks Buyers for Malaysian Office Towers, Mall Complex
BlackRock Inc. (BLK:US), the world’s largest asset manager, is seeking bids to sell two office towers and a mall in Kuala Lumpur, according to a sale document viewed by Bloomberg News.
Intermark Sdn., owned by BlackRock, is planning to sell the 62-story Vista office tower, the 39-story Integra office building and a retail mall in the Intermark, a mixed-use development in the Malaysian capital, the document showed. The bids will close on May 30 and the deal is expected to be completed by November, according to the document. BlackRock declined to comment in an e-mailed response to queries from Bloomberg News.
BlackRock has been exiting its investments from MGPA funds after it bought the private-equity property investment advisory firm last year to expand its real estate business in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe. It sold the 305-room Westin hotel in Singapore’s central business district last year to Daisho Group, a Japanese developer, and is in talks with Singapore’s Royal Group Holdings Pte to sell the 540-room DoubleTree by Hilton also at the Intermark, a person with knowledge of the matter said earlier this month.
MGPA Asia Fund II bought the Intermark assets for about $600 million in 2007, according to the asset manager. The Intermark has two office towers with a net leasable area of 1.32 million square feet (122,630 square meters), while the mall has 208,698 square feet available for lease, the document showed.
Together with the MGPA assets, New York-based BlackRock manages about $23.5 billion, focusing on real estate funds management, co-investments and separate-account mandates for institutional investors, BlackRock said in October.
Savills Plc is marketing the properties for BlackRock, according to the sale document.
By Bloomberg Business Week