Blackstone Inc is gearing up to file the draft papers for the launch of its office-based real estate investment trust (REIT) in India, sometime in February, sources said.
With a size of $700-750 million, this will be the country’s largest REIT. The US-based asset manager is also understood to have appointed Kotak Mahindra Capital Company as the lead investment banker.
Blackstone declined to comment on the proposed filing., and Kotak did not respond to an email seeking clarification.
Sources also confirmed that the REIT will consist of around 50 million square feet of assets belonging to Blackstone under Nucleus Office Parks and those developed jointly with Bengaluru-based real estate developer Sattva Group. Assets held under a joint venture between Blackstone and Panchshil Realty would not form part of the REIT portfolio, they asserted.
Blackstone has a portfolio of 20 million square feet under Nucleus, while with Sattva it has a joint portfolio of 32 msf of which 18 msf is completed.
Under Nucleus Parks, it has 14 properties across five cities – Mumbai, Gurugram, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Ahmedabad. Five of the properties such as One BKC, One International Centre, Prima Bay are located in Mumbai while in Bengaluru it owns assets such as One Trade Tower and Cessna Business Park.
The joint projects between Blackstone and Sattva include Knowledge City and Knowledge Park in Hyderabad and Sattva Global City in Bengaluru. Sattva Global (formerly Village Tech Park) is a green tech park and was acquired from Coffee Day Enterprises. It is majority owned by Blackstone.
At present there are four listed REITs in India with ₹1.2 lakh crore of assets under management, market capitalisation of over ₹75,000 crore and a portfolio covering 113.5 msf. Three are office-based REITs and one retail based.
