Blackstone Inc buys American Campus Communities Inc in an all-cash deal worth $12.8 billion

On Tuesday, Blackstone Inc made the announcement about buying the American Campus Communities Inc for almost about $12.8 billion, including debts.

As the deal gets closed, it becomes the world's largest alternative asset manager bets on rents increasing after colleges reopen.

American Campus Communities Inc owns about 166 properties covering 71 university markets, including that of the University of Texas and the Arizona State University.


Blackstone Inc also clarified that it was an all-cash deal in which the per-share price was evaluated almost 14% higher than the last closing price of American Campus Communities Inc shares, making it a per-share price of $65.47.

On Tuesday, after this announcement, the share price of a Texas-based company named Austin surged by nearly 13%, ending up at $64.84 per share during the premarket trading session.

This deal between American Campus Communities Inc and Blackstone Inc comes months after the activist Jonathan Litt's investment firm Land and Buildings sought the seat as American Campus Communities Inc's board member and advised them to sell the company's assets very aggressively and start the stock buyback process.

In 2021 due to various factors like low-interest rates, the robust U.S. housing market, and a steady recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, the M&A activity in the Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) sector had reached record-high levels.

According to the real estate service provider JLL in 2021, REIT M&A made transaction volumes worth $140 billion, which is way greater than the previous year, which stood at just $17 billion.

American Campus Communities Inc also said that "We will be taken private with the help of Blackstone Property Partners and Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc."

In December, Blackstone had also agreed to buy Bluerock Residential Growth REIT as another bullish bet on real estate with a deal worth $3.6 billion.