Colony Capital Inc. has engaged advisers to market its multibillion-dollar industrial portfolio for sale as part of the strategic review program announced in November 2018.

Chairman and CEO Tom Barrack Jr. said on an earnings conference call that the company is open to a variety of types of bids for the industrial portfolio, including for the assets or their manager or both, and will evaluate bids in the next 30 days. The portfolio comprises about 450 properties and about 60 million square feet of space.

"There's complications and opportunities in all of those," Barrack said, adding that buyer interest in the market for industrial properties has been "unbelievably good."

Barrack said the company expects to close a deal by the end of 2019, and while President Darren Tangen declined to provide details on the company's pricing expectations, he added that Colony expects a "meaningful" gain over the price it paid for the portfolio.

Citing sources, Bloomberg News reported July 17 that the company was looking to sell Colony Industrial in a deal that could fetch more than $5 billion. According to the report, the company was working with Eastdil Secured and Morgan Stanley on a potential deal for the business.

The company also said in the release that it continues to monetize nonstrategic other equity and debt investments and other noncore assets in a move to generate liquidity and simplify its business. Proceeds may be redeployed into strategies such as digital infrastructure, emerging markets and energy, as well as used to reduce corporate debt.

In July, the company held the first closing of its fifth global real estate credit fund, which mainly targets opportunistic credit investments in Europe. The investment vehicle has total capital commitments of about $428 million.