Stake in StorageMart Might be Acquired by Singapore Wealth Fund GIC

Originally posted by The Straits Times

SINGAPORE (BLOOMBERG) - Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC is in talks to acquire a stake in StorageMart, which describes itself as the largest privately owned storage company in the world, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Although a deal has yet to be finalised, the potential transaction is slated to value StorageMart at more than US$2.5 billion (S$3.5 billion), including debt, some of the people said. [Rosewood Investment](https://www.radiusplus.com/keyword/rosewood investment) may participate in the deal, one of them said.

Representatives for StorageMart, GIC and [Rosewood](https://www.radiusplus.com/keyword/rosewood investment) either declined to comment or didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Columbia, Missouri-based StorageMart last month said it added 549 climate-controlled storage units in its latest facility located in Fredericksburg, Virginia. It has about 225 locations in the US, Canada and the UK, its website shows.

StorageMart, a family-operated business led by chief executive officer Mike Burnam and President Cris Burnam, counts TKG, an affiliate of Kroenke Group, among its backers. TKG was founded by Stanley Kroenke, a billionaire whose other holdings include the NFL's Los Angeles Rams, the NBA's Denver Nuggets and Arsenal Football Club.

Mr Kroenke sponsored one of the first CMBS issuances of 2019, a US$644 million single asset, single borrower backed by 101 StorageMart-branded self-storage properties.

GIC has been an active participant across the US property market. In December, it entered a joint venture with mall-operator RPT Realty and in 2018, it formed a joint venture with Tricon Capital Group and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas to snap up US.rental homes.

[Rosewood](https://www.radiusplus.com/keyword/rosewood investment) is an investment firm based in New York, according to filings.

Storage is set to be among the real estate sectors least impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, in part due to strong ongoing demand and expectations for only a modest decline in construction activity, according to research provider Green Street Advisors LLC.

Publicly-traded Reits including [Public Storage](https://www.radiusplus.com/keyword/public storage) and [Extra Space Storage Inc](https://www.radiusplus.com/keyword/extra space storage) have each fallen less than 7 per cent this year, faring better than the broader Bloomberg US Reits index, which has declined about 14 per cent.