Blackstone Group LP is buying GLP Pte. Ltd.'s industrial warehouses in the U.S. for US$18.7 billion in what would be the largest-ever private real estate transaction globally.

The private equity giant, through Blackstone Real Estate's global opportunistic BREP strategy and its unlisted Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc., is purchasing 179 million square feet of urban and infill logistics assets from three of the Singapore-based company's U.S. funds.

Blackstone is understood to have outbid Prologis Inc. to secure the deal for the portfolio, which includes about 1,300 properties, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The transaction, which includes approximately US$8 billion of debt that the buying company intends to refinance, will make Blackstone one of the largest owners of U.S. logistics assets, the June 2 report added.

GLP appointed Kirkland & Ellis as its legal counsel, and Eastdil Secured LLC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC as its financial advisers.

Blackstone tapped Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP as its legal counsel, Citigroup, Eastdil and Goldman Sachs as its financing advisers, and BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC as its financial advisers.