Blackstone’s Brixmor Files For IPO

Brixmor said it was seeking to raise $100 million, but the amount was solely for the purpose of calculating the registration fee, the company said in a filing. The IPO is expected to be larger as it is valued at roughly $13 billion including debt.

Investors and analysts have been awaiting the filing, as it is one of Blackstone’s largest real estate companies expected to become publicly traded or sold. Real estate is the biggest earner among Blackstone’s businesses.

Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity and asset management company, acquired nearly all of Brixmor’s properties when in 2011 it bought, for $9.2 billion, more than 700 U.S. real estate properties from struggling shopping center company Australia-based Centro Properties Group.

Blackstone previously said that it planned to take Brixmor public by the end of the year. It also has said it would likely take the larger hotel company Hilton Worldwide public by the end of next year and begin selling its massive portfolio of office buildings within the next year or so.

Brixmor, a real estate investment trust, owned 522 shopping centers, usually anchored by grocery stores or value-oriented retailers such as T.J. Maxx, according to the filing. The portfolio is 91 percent leased. With 86.7 million square feet of gross leasable space, Brixmor is the second largest owner of neighborhood shopping centers after Kimco Realty Corp.

Brixmor is owned by funds managed by Blackstone. It intends to trade under the ticker BRX on the New York Stock Exchange.

Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co have been selected as bookrunners to underwrite the offering.

Ilaina Jonas is a correspondent for Reuters in New York.