Blackstone Scores $800M From Norway For North American Logistics Fund
Despite a global trade war, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is betting on U.S. industrial growth.
Norges Bank Investment Management, Norway’s central bank and the manager of its government pension fund, invested $800M in Blackstone’s closed-end core-plus North American logistics fund.
The investment in the Blackstone Americas Logistics fund will be deployed into warehouses in large population centers across the U.S. and Canada.
“We’ve had productive dialogue with Blackstone for a long time,” Ed Lerum, head of global logistics real estate at Norges, said in a statement. “They have a compelling track record of responsibly creating value for their investment partners.”
The deal closed Wednesday, two days after President Donald Trump announced that the White House would pare back crushing tariffs on Chinese imports as the two countries negotiate a longer-term trade agreement.
North America’s industrial real estate sector is on the front line of the ongoing tariff regime imposed by the White House as the administration looks to rebalance global trade.
The sector is wary of the impacts from early reports that container traffic from China to West Coast ports had plummeted after Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariff rollout. Just a day after the China-U.S. trade detente was announced, China-to-U.S. container bookings jumped by 277%.
Norges, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, managing $1.8T, targets a portfolio with roughly 5% real estate assets, with its governance rules allowing for up to 9% of the fund to be invested in unlisted real estate and energy infrastructure.
It delivered record profits in 2024, thanks to the strong performance of U.S. tech stocks, but its real estate has been a drag on the portfolio in recent years, slipping 0.6% in value in 2024 after a 12% decline in 2023.
Earlier this month, Norges announced that Alexander Knapp would join the firm as its new global head of real estate, effective June 16, leaving his role as Hines’ chief development officer for Europe. Norges brought its real estate investment team in-house in 2019 after its investments underperformed targets for years.
Blackstone and Norges formed a €755M, or $845M at Thursday's exchange rate, joint venture in 2017 that acquired the existing and newly built headquarters of German media giant Axel Springer in the heart of Berlin as part of a long-term sale-leaseback.
In the U.S., Norges recently purchased a $2.2B stake in a 48-property logistics portfolio from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
“We are excited about entering into a partnership with Blackstone,” Per Løken, Norges’ global co-head of unlisted real estate, said in a statement Thursday. “This opportunity allows us to increase our exposure to the US and Canadian logistics markets and grow our knowledge and experience alongside Blackstone.”
