Prologis To Buy Duke Realty For $24B

Prologis said it offered to buy Duke Realty in a nearly $24 billion deal, a vote of confidence in the e-commerce business at a time when investors are getting nervous about its growth.

Prologis controls a 1 billion square foot global network of warehouses and distribution centers, including facilities used by retail and logistics companies such as Amazon.com, Home Depot and FedEx.

The company said Tuesday that it made its unsolicited all-stock offer of $23.7 billion for Duke after more than five months trying to convince the company to engage in private negotiations.

“Numerous private conversations have not led to serious dialogue or consideration,” Prologis Chief Executive Hamid Moghadam said in a letter to James Connor, Duke’s chief executive.

Prologis’s offer of $61.68 per share represented a premium of 29% to Duke’s closing price on May 9.

Duke, which owns about 160 million square feet of industrial real estate in 19 major U.S. logistics markets, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Moghadam’s letter said that in private communications, Duke has “contended that the premium is not enough to engage seriously with us.”

Industrial real estate has been one of the best performing commercial real-estate sectors in recent years because of the explosive growth in online commerce. The pandemic further boosted the sector with people spending more time shopping at home.

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