Blackstone wins takeover bid for US office giant

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2007

NEW YORK (AFP) — Investment fund Blackstone Group succeeded in a 39-billion-dollar bid to take over the largest US office management firm, in the most costly US private equity transaction ever.

Shareholders of Equity Office Properties Trust (EOPT) voted overwhelmingly to back the Blackstone offer, EOPT said in a statement.

The vote came shortly after another company, Vornado Realty Trust, pulled out of a bidding war for EOPT following a raised offer from Blackstone.

"Vornado concluded that the premium it would have to pay to top Blackstone's latest bid, protected by a twice-increased breakup fee, would not be in its shareholders' interest," the rival bidder said in a statement.

The Chicago-based EOPT owns or has stakes in 585 office buildings in 16...