NEW YORK CITY—Blackstone said Wednesday afternoon that affiliates of Blackstone Real Estate Partners VIII LP had closed on the $8-billion acquisition of BioMed Realty Trust. Shares of the San Diego-based healthcare real estate landlord ceased trading on the New York Stock Exchange as of Thursday following the close of the all-cash deal, first announced in October.

The closing, delayed for two days due to Winter Storm Jonas, marks the third major REIT transaction by private equity this week. It followed Starwood Capital Group's back-to-back closing on its acquisition of more than 23,000 apartments from Equity Residential and privatization of Landmark Apartment Trust in partnership with Milestone Apartment REIT.

Morgan Stanley acted as lead financial advisor to BMR, with Raymond James & Associates. also acting as a financial advisor in connection with this transaction. Latham & Watkins LLP acted as the REIT's legal advisor. Eastdil Secured, Citigroup Global Markets Inc., JP Morgan Securities, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs acted as Blackstone's financial advisors in connection with the transaction. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP acted as the buyer's legal advisor.

Separately, Blackstone on Thursday reported its fourth-quarter and full-year 2015 results, which reflected a challenging period for large private equity managers. Economic net income fell to $435.7 million, or 37 cents a share, from $1.45 billion, or $1.25 a share in the year-ago period. ENI came in below a Bloomberg Business consensus of 44 cents per share.

For the real estate unit, the year-over-year dropoff in Q4 ENI was comparable: $162.1 million, compared to $577.3 million, with full-year ENI of $948 million compared to just under $1.9 billion for 2014. On the other hand, the real estate unit's assets under management increased from $80.9 billion a year ago to $94 billion as of this past Dec. 31.