Ares, Makarora Wrap Up $2.1B Plymouth Deal

Ares Alternative Credit Funds and Makarora Management have just wrapped up the acquisition of Plymouth Industrial REIT at $2.1 billion in an all-cash deal, equivalent to $22.00 per share.

Ares and Makarora’s offer displaced a prior proposal from Sixth Street Partners, which clocked in at $24.10 per share. This initial proposition was nearly a done deal, having a 90 percent chance of closing, according to Investing.com, citing Baird analysts, which deemed the emergence of competing bidders unlikely.

Yet, Baird also downgraded Plymouth’s rating from outperforming to neutral in October, even as the REIT was trading near a 52-week high, at $22.11 per share. It cited a balanced risk-reward profile at that price as the main reason for this change.

Mere days after Baird’s downgrade, Ares and Makarora’s deal surfaced with an offering of $22.00 per share, representing a 50 percent premium compared to Plymouth’s closing on August 18, the day before Sixth Street Partners’ offer caused the stock to soar, according to PERE reporting.

Plymouth owned 148 industrial properties comprising 32.1 million square feet as of September 2025, according to a SEC filing. During the first three quarters of 2025, it expanded its portfolio by nearly 2.9 million square feet, representing a 75.5 percent growth year-over-year.

It invested $269.7 million for this expansion, up from $100.5 million during the same period of 2024, the same filing shows. One of the most significant Plymouth deals of 2025 was the acquisition of a roughly 2 million-square-foot portfolio from Investcorp for $193 million.

REIT M&A activity surges during 2025’s second half

The second half of 2025 witnessed a spike in REIT merger and acquisition deals, with six such deals announced for a total of $16.3 billion, according to an S&P report. By comparison, just two agreements were reached during 2025’s first half, with a transaction volume of $1.7 billion.

Notably, the largest REIT M&A agreement of 2025 closed in the office sector, where Rithm Capital Corp. agreed to pay $5.8 billion, debt included, for all outstanding common shares of Paramount Group. The deal wrapped up at $6.60 per fully diluted share.

Another noteworthy acquisition closed in the retail market with Blackstone’s acquisition of Alexander & Baldwin, one of Hawaii’s largest owners of commercial real estate. The private equity giant teamed up with MW Group and DivcoWest for the deal valued at $2.3 billion, or $21.20 per share.