Mumbai: World non-public fairness corporations Blackstone, Brookfield and Ascendas have positioned binding bids to accumulate the warehousing portfolio of ESR India as international traders consolidate their maintain on the nation’s logistics infrastructure.
The deal, which is more likely to worth the enterprise at ₹3,500 crore ($400-420 million), is in its closing phases, three folks with direct information of the event mentioned.
“The binding bids got here in on Thursday night time. The agency will now signal exclusivity and proceed with one of many bidders,” one particular person mentioned. Mint first reported the corporate’s plan to promote its warehousing portfolio on April 11. Actual property advisory agency JLL is advising ESR.
Spokespersons for Blackstone, Brookfield and Ascendas declined to touch upon the matter. ESR and JLL didn’t reply to Mint’s requests for touch upon Thursday night.
ESR India, a three way partnership between Hong Kong-based ESR Group and Germany’s Allianz Actual Property, is a logistics and industrial actual property firm with about 24 million sq. toes of warehousing belongings, together with these under-construction.
Nonetheless, given the curiosity amongst traders in warehousing, the belongings attracted suitors, the second particular person mentioned. The corporate’s parks are positioned in states together with Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and Odisha.
That is ESR-Allianz’s second try at promoting a controlling stake within the firm. In 2023, the corporate deliberate to promote about 90% of the stake and retain the remaining 10%. The deal didn’t undergo, though Blackstone Group got here near clinching it.
“This time, the agency is trying to exit totally and therefore the heightened investor curiosity,” the primary particular person added.
Blackstone has been bulking up its warehousing portfolio. Earlier this 12 months, it spent ₹1,700 crore to accumulate LOGOS India’s three warehousing parks in Luhari in Haryana and Chennai.
ESR entered into the partnership with Allianz in 2018 and had mentioned they might make investments $1 billion, together with debt, to develop large-scale warehousing and industrial services in India.
Warehouse offers
Xander Funding Administration can also be trying to monetize its warehousing belongings within the nation. Non-public fairness corporations corresponding to Alta Capital’s logistics platform LogiCap, Horizon Industrial Parks, CapitaLand Ltd, Firstspace Realty-backed Ascendas Firstspace and Morgan Stanley Actual Property Investing had positioned bids for the asset, Mint reported in June. Whereas the transaction remains to be in progress, Alta Capital could also be inching nearer to concluding a deal.
Non-public fairness funding in Indian actual property hit $4.2 billion in 2024, a 32% surge from the prior 12 months, in accordance with information from Knight Frank India, an actual property consultancy. Warehousing led the cost, accounting for 45% of those investments and surpassing the workplace sector, which had held the very best share of PE investments since 2017.
An estimated 50-55% of Grade A warehouse inventory is backed by international traders corresponding to US non-public fairness agency Blackstone, Canada Pension Plan Funding Board, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, Singapore-based GLP, and Hong Kong-based ESR Group.
In line with JLL, India’s warehousing inventory has reached 533.1 million sq. ft, with rising tier II-III cities contributing about 100 million sq. ft – a fourfold improve since 2017 – as of 2024.
“This shift signifies a basic change within the nation’s logistics panorama, aligning with the hub-and-spoke mannequin envisioned in the course of the implementation of the Items and Companies Tax (GST),” JLL mentioned. The centralized mannequin helps to enhance deliveries and scale back prices.
There was sturdy demand throughout each established and rising markets final 12 months, with a mixed absorption of 60 million sq. ft throughout 20 warehousing markets in India.
The expansion was pushed primarily by the consumption growth, with 60% of on-line purchases now originating from tier II and III cities, it mentioned.
