The Commercial Real Estate Alpha Site

Public Storage Needs More Space

The self-storage company made an $11 billion unsolicited offer for its rival Life Storage merely a month after proposals were denied in December and January. Public Storage currently operates over 2,800 self-storage facilities in the US, but its overture to Life Storage is aimed at building a more extensive real estate portfolio and economies of scale in an increasingly fragmented space.

Titan’s Takeaway

Self-storage stocks popped during the COVID rally, recently giving up their big gains and seeking to grow by acquisition. While M&A activity has slowed in the sector as part of a broader downturn in dealmaking, the self-storage space continues to be primed for acquisitive tendencies. Though they operate in different parts of the storage industry, Public Storage seems to be taking a page out of the playbook of Wilscot Mobile Mini. Wilscot’s merger with Mobile Mini in 2020 made it the dominant player in modular space and portable storage in North America. Public Storage already holds a remarkable 198 million square feet of rentable space, but everyone needs more space.