Blackstone Real Estate funds have acquired an initial 10.6m sqft of logistics assets as part of a plan to buy a US$720m (€593m) industrial estate in India, according to people familiar with the matter.
Blackstone said the funds have acquired Embassy Industrial Parks from Warburg Pincus and Embassy Group for an undisclosed sum.
Sources told IPE Real Assets that Blackstone planned to purchase the entirety of the industrial estates in coming weeks.
IPE Real Assets understands that the total value of the deal for Blackstone to acquire all of Embassy Industrial Parks, a total of 22m sqft, will be around US$720m.
Warburg Pincus formed a US$250m 70-30 joint venture with Embassy in 2015 to develop the industrial parks.
Asheesh Mohta, the head of Blackstone’s Real Estate India acquisitions, said: “Logistics is one of the firm’s highest global conviction themes, anchored by our belief that e-commerce trends will further fuel demand for logistics space, especially near city centres.
“This is particularly true in India, where e-commerce is in its nascent stage of development and has tremendous opportunities driven by positive trends in urbanisation, domestic consumption and the emerging retail sector, which remains heavily underpenetrated compared to major economies around the world.”
Tuhin Parikh, Blackstone’s head of real estate India, said the firm was committed to growing its presence in India.
“For the past 16 years, we’ve been partnering with local developers and governments to transform assets and businesses and to help communities prosper,” he said.
Jitu Virwani, chairman and managing director of Embassy Group, said: “We are extremely focussed on consolidating our resources towards the growth of our core businesses of office and residential development and management.
“This transaction with Blackstone Real Estate, along with the upcoming merger with IBREL (Indiabulls Real Estate) is a strategic move in that direction.”
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