Publicly traded real-estate investors in the U.S. enjoyed a record-breaking year for mergers in 2021, but the war in Ukraine and soaring inflation threaten to slow that deal making in the second half of the year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Real-estate investment trust mergers and acquisitions as well as stock mergers totaled $140 billion last year, an all-time high, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, a professional services company specializing in commercial real estate. Activity was powered by pent-up demand and real estate’s strong performance across most sectors, said Sheheryar Hafeez, managing director for capital markets at JLL. Larger deals helped drive the big overall volume number last year, with the average transaction size reaching $7 billion in 2021, compared with the average deal size of $3.6 billion over the prior decade, according to JLL. In one larger-than-average transaction, Vici Properties Inc. agreed to buy MGM Growth Properties in a $17.2 billion deal, including debt. Blackstone Inc. and Starwood Capital Group acquired hotel owner and operator Extended Stay America Inc. for $6 billion, the biggest lodging transaction last year.
