The Blackstone Group has raised its bid for Sam Zell’s Equity Office Properties Trust to $38.3bn (£19.4bn) in response to a rival bid last week by the Dove Parent Consortium.

The US private equity group has raised it bid to $54 (£27.4) a share in cash from $48.50 (£24.61) a share. The bid includes more than $16bn (£8.12bn) of debt. Dove’s bid, led by Vornado Realty Trust, offered $52 (£26.39) a share in cash and 40% Vornado stock.

Equity Office was founded more than 30 years ago by US property developer Sam Zell and the deal when complete will be the world’s largest leveraged buyout commercial property transaction. It has stakes in 543 office buildings in the US.

Vornado is the world’s fourth-largest REIT and is chaired by Steve Roth. It has teamed up with joint venture partners Barry Sternlicht, head of Starwood Capital, and Neil Bluhm, chief executive of Walton Street Capital, to form the Dove Parent Consortium. Last week it was granted access to Equity Office’s books with a view to progressing the deal.