The Blackstone Group, a U.S. private equity group, has made an offer to buy all the shares in Finnish real estate investment company Sponda for about €1.8 billion ($2.0 billion). The cash offer of €5.19 per share represents a premium of 20.7 percent compared to Sponda’s last closing price. Sponda’s properties, which include office and retail spaces in Finland’s largest cities, were valued at about €3.8 billion in March. Sponda’s board unanimously recommended that shareholders accept the offer. Sponda’s largest owners include Finnish-Swedish foundations and Finnish pension fund Varma. Sponda was founded by the Bank of Finland during the country’s banking crisis in 1991 when it took over assets from SKOP bank. “Our proposed acquisition represents another step in Blackstone’s long-standing strategy of investing in high quality real estate assets and businesses across the Nordic region,” James Seppala, Blackstone’s head of European real estate said in a statement.
