Blackstone Group LP’s (NYSE:BX) Blackstone Property Partners is planning to purchase Excel Trust Inc. (NYSE:EXL) for $2 billion.

The acquisition will have Blackstone paying $15.85 per share for all of Excel Trust’s outstanding common stock. It was approved by the company’s Board of Directors and Blackstone will be paying in cash.

The deal for Blackstone to acquire Excel Trust represents a 15% premium over the company’s stock price as of the market’s closing on Thursday. The deal still needs to be approved by shareholders and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2015.

Excel Trust will still be paying a dividend of 18 cents to investors on April 15. It will also pay a dividend in July of this year. However, the deal would end dividends after this.

EXL shares were up 14% as of Friday afternoon and BX shares were up 2%.

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