Equity Office moves in on Yida Group

Equity Office, the US commercial property developer acquired by Blackstone Group LP in February, is close to buying Northeast China's Yida Group, the largest developer of software parks in China.

"We have been in talks with Equity Office for a year and expect to seal the details of the deal on September 17, including price and share structure," said Sun Yinhuan, chairman of Yida Group, on the sidelines of Summer Davos in Dalian.

Privately held Yida Group started building software parks in 1998 and has invested 5.5 billion yuan in the first phase of the Dalian Software Park, a 3-million-sq-m project that houses international tech giants such as Dell and Accenture.