Private equity firm KKR & Co said on Tuesday it had agreed to sell a 14.5 million square feet industrial property portfolio for about $2.2-billion to Oxford Properties Group, a real estate investor based in Canada.
Oxford, the real estate arm of Canadian pension fund Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, expects the acquisition to help it expand into the U.S. market. The portfolio comprises 149 buildings across 12 major industrial markets including Dallas, Chicago and Houston.
With the pandemic last year propelling a shift away from shopping at brick-and-mortar stores to online, retailers’ demand for industrial properties such as warehouses and logistics facilities has skyrocketed.
Oxford and its portfolio companies manage about $70-billion of assets, according to its website.
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