The India unit of real estate investment manager Rava Partners has acquired logistics facilities in Chennai and Pune from rival Indospace for INR 8.4 billion ($99.6 million), according to sources familiar with the transaction.
The acquisitions of the fully leased warehouses add 2.5 million square feet (232,258 square metres) to the portfolio managed by Alta Capital, the India-based branch of Rava Partners, Mingtiandi understands, with the deal revealed just weeks after Rava’s Logicap Management logistics unit announced an India development venture with Japan’s Mitsubishi Estate.
Rava is buying the pair of distribution centres from Indospace as one of that company’s biggest backers, GLP, is restructuring its holdings globally, including a $3.7 billion deal announced one month ago to sell its non-China holdings to US private equity firm Ares Management. The news of the India warehouse deal confirms earlier reporting by the Economic Times.
As one of Indospace’s largest investors takes on its new form, Rava has been expanding its presence regionally, with the unit of financier Zhang Lei’s Hillhouse Investment having last month announced a $1.1 billion deal to expand its presence in Japan.
Expanding India Portfolio
The deal gives Rava a 1.3 million square foot facility in Indospace’s Ranjangaon industrial park in Pune, near Mumbai, and a 1.2 million square foot complex in its Sri City park near Chennai in Tamil Nadu state. At the stated compensation, Rava is paying the equivalent of INR 3,360 per square foot for the properties. Representatives of Rava Partners declined to comment on the transaction while Indospace had yet to reply to inquiries from Mingtiandi by the time of publication.
The acquisitions bring Rava’s India logistics portfolio to 11 million square feet, with around half of that space completed and stabliised, while the remainder is under development. The company recently set up Logicap, under the direction of former JLL executive Priyank Shah and former Indospace executive director Abhay Goyal, to manage its warehouse strategy.
Established in 2021 and led by former Blackstone India managing director Siddhartha Gupta, Alta Capital invests in real estate assets and early-stage proptech companies, according to its website. The company also invests in corporates and provides structured credit, in addition to pursuing special situations.
Operating as Rava’s presence in India, Alta Capital has accounted for $1.1 billion of the $2.5 billion in capital which the parent firm has committed around Asia Pacific, with $700 million of that India amount already invested.
In September Logicap announced plans to develop 15 million additional square metres of India logistics facilities in a partnership with Mitsubishi Estate. As part of that joint venture the partners acquired a pair of facilities in northern India’s Gurugram measuring over 1.9 million square feet.
Rava followed up last month with a $1.1 billion deal to buy out Tokyo-listed developer Samty Holdings, with that venture aimed at establishing a residential-focused investment platform in Japan.
GLP Changes Shape
GLP first partnered with Indospace in 2018 with the Indian company later promoted as a unit of the Singapore-domiciled logistics giant.
Founded in 2007, Indospace has more than 52 industrial parks in India spanning over 58 million square feet, according to its website. IndoSpace co-founder and chief executive Brian Oravec left the company last month, according to his LinkedIn profile, with the developer and fund manager now helmed by long-time executive Sharad Gohil.
In announcing their agreement for Ares to acquire GLP’s fund management business outside of China, the two companies did not mention Indospace or India, with the takeover specifying a buyout of GLP Capital Partners’ business in Japan, Vietnam, Europe, the US and Brazil.
Within a few weeks of announcing the deal with Ares, GLP Capital Partners said it had sold 13 Brazilian logistics assets to a local industrial REIT for $313 million.
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