美国最大的房地产信托投资基金EOP(Equity Office Properties)以389亿美元的天价售出（包括债务160亿，净资产价格约230亿美元）。购买者是黑石集团（Blackstone Group）,巨型的私人募集投资基金公司，完全以现金形式支付。这项购并交易不仅创下房地产信托投资基金(Real Estate Investment Trust, REIT)交易的纪录，也是全球企业购并的新纪录，打破去年HCA InC（美国最大的医院连锁集团）327亿美元的购并交易记录额（也包括债务）。

EOP主要从事商业地产投资。是北美最大的办公楼物业持有者，同时也是全球最大的房地产信托基金。EOP旗下知名的地产项目包括，曼哈顿的环球广场、芝加哥的市民剧院和西雅图的最高建筑哥伦比亚中心。EOP曾被《财富》杂志评选为最受人尊敬的公司，该公司还成为了第一家进入标准普尔500名单的美国房地产公司。

尽管美国住房市场2006年以来出现滑坡，但商业地产市场却更加繁荣。2006年景气指数上涨了34%。全美房地产商协会(National Association of Realtors，简称NAR)在行业简报中表示，美国办公楼空置率有望从目前的12.9%，到明年第四季度下跌至12.1%。目前的办公楼空置率已經是2001年以来的最低水平。但租金却一直在上涨。办公楼租金2006年增长4.6%，而2007年則会再增长5.7%。

American property

Quite a performance

Feb 8th 2007 | NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition

Blackstone wins the battle for EOP, but the clear victor is the seller

WHERE better to play out the final act of a hugely entertaining real-estate drama than Chicago's Civic Opera Building? That is where shareholders gathered on February 7th to decide the fate of Equity Office Properties (EOP), America's largest commercial landlord. They had an enviable choice to make. They could take a handsome cash offer from The Blackstone Group, a private-equity giant that valued the company at nearly $39 billion (including debt), far more than anyone had thought it could fetch a few months ago. Or they could go with a bid that was slightly higher but a riskier mix of cash and shares, from a group led by Vornado Realty Trust, another listed property company. A couple of hours before the vote, Vornado capitulated, leaving Blackstone the winner. The shareholders in Chicago, however, had the most to celebrate.

It was a humdinger of a battle. Sam Zell, EOP's founder, had talked to Vornado about a possible tie-up last summer. In November, however, after those negotiations faltered, Mr Zell agreed to sell to Blackstone for $48.50 a share, almost $20 more than the stock had been worth only months earlier. Shrewdly, he insisted on keeping a low “break-up fee”—payable to Blackstone if it lost out to another suitor. This made it easier for other bidders to come in. Vornado and its partners swooped in mid-January, forcing the private-equity firm to raise its offer twice, to $55.50 a share. That makes the deal the biggest buy-out ever in nominal terms, eclipsing the takeover of HCA last year, as well as the biggest acquisition of a real-estate investment trust (REIT). No wonder Mr Zell has earned the nickname “Gravedancer”. 

Mr Zell has not always been so clever: he overpaid for a cluster of Silicon Valley buildings during the dotcom crash, for instance. But this time he did himself proud, squeezing nearly $3 billion more out of Blackstone than it had originally put on the table.

With queues forming to congratulate the canny 65-year-old, Blackstone's victory might look a touch hollow. In its favour, America's commercial-property market continues to boom, even as residential prices stagnate or fall. The main REIT index—which counts EOP as a member—shot up by 34.4% last year. The office market went up by even more. Pension funds, keen to diversify out of shares and bonds, have been raising their allocations to property.

Moreover, Blackstone knows the game, having amassed a large property portfolio—including Trizec Properties, bought jointly with Brookfield last October for $4.8 billion. With interest rates low, it can borrow cheaply against the value of EOP's assets and use the cashflow from rents—which are high and rising in most big cities—to cover its interest payments. Its plan may be to carve out and sell separately some of the firm's trophy properties in New York, Seattle and Los Angeles. One reason EOP fell prey in the first place was that its shares were trading at less than the estimated value of its assets.

But Blackstone's buy-out barons would struggle to make the deal pay if offices were to go the same way as housing. The REIT index jumped another 8% in January alone, leading some to wonder about the boom's sustainability. “I thought we'd reached the peak 18 months ago, but it continues to defy expectations,” says the boss of one conglomerate's property arm.

Vornado's chief executive, Steven Roth—like Mr Zell, something of a legend in the world of steel and concrete—will no doubt be feeling sore. He told shareholders last year that, with the office market soaring, “every single deal we didn't do [in recent years] was a mistake,” the Wall Street Journal reports. On this occasion he may, given time, have fewer regrets.