Global sustainable infrastructure investor Actis has teamed up with Mahindra Lifespaces to develop industrial and logistics real estate assets across India.

Actis will be investing an undisclosed amount for a majority stake in the joint venture with the real estate and infrastructure development arm of the Mahindra Group. Mahindra Lifespaces will own a significant minority stake.

Up to 100 acres of land with ready infrastructure in the Mahindra World Cities, offering a built-up potential of over 2m sqft, have been earmarked as seed sites to be acquired and developed by the business over time, Actis said.

Ashish Singh, partner and head of India and SE Asia Real Estate, Actis, said: “The warehousing sector in India is in early stages of a transformation, rapidly gaining scale while also undergoing modernisation. As experienced builders and operators of sustainable new economy real estate, Actis sees enormous growth potential in the sector as India grows to become the third-largest consumption economy globally by the turn of this decade.

“The demand for industrial real estate is on the rise as India benefits from a renewal of domestic capital investment cycle, realignment of global supply chains in many sectors and, as the government’s PLI schemes catalyse, more and more investment in manufacturing locally. Yet, there is need for more dependable real estate solution providers and institutional owners in this sector.”

Arvind Subramanian, managing director and CEO, Mahindra Lifespaces, said: “We are witnessing strong and accelerating demand for Grade A warehousing and manufacturing facilities from both multinational and Indian clients.

“With our experience in building and operating thriving integrated cities and industrial parks and our ready-to-market plug-and-play infrastructure in Mahindra World Cities in Chennai and Jaipur, we are well-positioned to cater to this demand.”

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