Ascendas India Trust has entered a forward-purchase agreement with India’s Casa Grande to acquire its first industrial facility at Mahindra World City, in the Indian city of Chennai.
The trust is buying the first phase of the project for about INR2.12bn (€24m) in a forward-purchase arrangement and has also taken an option to acquire all shares in the entity developing phase 2 of the project.
Phase 1, which offers a net leasable area of approximately 420,000sqft, is fully pre-leased to Pegatron Technology India Private.
“The proposed acquisition will add exposure to the industrial asset class and diversify our portfolio, said Sanjeev Dasgupta, chief executive officer of Ascendas Property Fund Trustee.
Dasgupta said the project also offered an opportunity to have a leading manufacturer like Pegatron within its Ascendas tenant portfolio to support its expansion in India.
Ascendas said that subject to leasing milestones and other conditions being met, it had the option to provide additional funding to south Indian property developer Casa Grande to develop industrial facilities of approximately 370,000m sqft to expand the facilities in the first phase.
To read the digital edition of the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.