The Blackstone Group sold its last piece of Invitation Homes.
The private equity giant sold nearly 11 percent of Invitation Homes’ shares for about $1.7 billion. In all, Blackstone made about $7 billion since the home rental business went public in 2017, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Blackstone founded Invitation Homes after the financial crisis, scooping up suburban homes at the bottom of the market to rent to people who could no longer afford a mortgage.
Even though Blackstone sold its stock in the company, Invitation Homes’ share price has kept rising. As of 2:40 p.m. Thursday afternoon, the stock price was $29.60 per share, up 48 percent since the company went public at $20 a share over two years ago.
Jonathan Gray, Blackstone’s president, who led its real estate division when it launched Invitation Homes, said the biggest challenge was building the business. “We created a company from scratch. It was created on a yellow pad. It was an idea. Now it’s a real business,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
Since Invitation Homes was created, Blackstone acquired real estate from its competitors in the single-family rental business, including the portfolios of Starwood Capital Group and Colony Capital, making it the largest landlord of single-family homes in the U.S. [WSJ] – Katherine Kallergis