BlackRock to buy investment firm MGPA

BlackRock Inc. said Tuesday it would purchase MGPA, an investment group with significant real estate assets in Asia and Europe. The purchase, for an undisclosed sum, would nearly double BlackRock's real estate holdings, adding $12 billion in assets to its portfolio, BlackRock said. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday MGPA's assets are in the Asia-Pacific and Europe at a ratio of about 2-to-1. "When you think about investment styles, there's no doubt we are seeing increasingly large institutions and pension funds and insurance companies ... heading into alternative [investments] and longer-dated assets," said Mark McCombe, BlackRock's Asia-Pacific chairman. In Asia, he said, expanding BlackRock's real-estate portfolio was a way to satisfy demand for longer-term investments. "There's no doubt that the Asean region has a lot of opportunity," he added, noting growing demand in cities like Jakarta that have improving socio-economic and political conditions. BlackRock manages $3.9 trillion in assets. McCombe said real estate in Asia was a "hole" in its portfolio.