BENGALURU - Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and Canada’s Dream Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust (Reit) will buy Canada’s Summit Industrial Income Reit for about C$4.46 billion (S$4.64 billion), excluding debt, the companies said in separate statements on Monday.

GIC and Dream Industrial Reit (DIR) will form a joint venture for the deal, with GIC owning 90 per cent and DIR owning the rest, according to the statements.

The deal builds on GIC’s recent real estate purchases globally and gives it access to the Canadian industrial space.

In September, GIC, along with another private equity firm, bought US commercial Reit Store Capital Corp for about US$14 billion (S$19.7 billion).

Summit’s unit holders will get C$23.50 per unit in cash, representing a 31.1 per cent premium to their close on Friday, Summit said in a separate statement.

The deal is valued at C$4.46 billion, according to Reuters’ calculations based on Summit’s 189.85 million outstanding units as at June 30. Including debt, the deal is valued at C$5.9 billion, Summit said.

DIR said the deal would more than double the scale of its Canadian industrial portfolio under management, while the joint venture with GIC would give it a new source of capital to pursue acquisitions in Canada without relying on capital markets.

On June 30, Summit’s portfolio totalled 160 properties aggregating 21.6 million square feet, with an additional 13 buildings under development aggregating 2.3 million square feet of potential gross leasable area, for a total net book value of approximately US$5 billion. REUTERS