Blackstone To Buy Equity Office For $20 Billion

Blackstone Group LP, manager of the world's largest buyout fund, may purchase Equity Office Properties Trust, the largest American office landlord, for about $20 billion, a person familiar with the matter said.

Equity Office's board is meeting to consider the bid for the Chicago-based real estate investment trust, said the person, who declined to be identified before an announcement, which could come later tonight.

A leveraged buyout of Equity Office, whose chairman is billionaire Sam Zell, would be the largest ever in the real-estate industry. It comes amid a deal-making bonanza for private equity firms, which are flush with cash from record fundraising, and office REITs, which are benefiting from a surge in demand in major markets such as New York. A spokeswoman for Equity Office, Terry Holt, declined to confirm or deny the buyout talks, which were earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal. A spokesman for New Yorkbased Blackstone, John Ford, also declined to comment. The biggest acquisition of a real estate investment trust to date was General Growth Properties Inc.'s purchase of Rouse Co. for $11.3 billion in 2004.