March29 , 2024

    Blackstone Group plans to expand warehousing portfolio in India

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    The warehousing and logistics development in India is on the rise on the rear of rising consumption led by demographics, ecommerce penetration and supporting regulatory initiatives by the government.

    Betting on this developing area, Blackstone Group is hoping to extend its warehousing portfolio in India by 2.5 times to 100 million sq ft from current 40 million sq ft in the following 3-5 years.

    The group will be furthering its logistics portfolio through its existing joint ventures and partnerships and will also be forging new alliances for the same.

    “India’s demographics and consumption pattern along with promising economic growth prospects certainly indicate a huge opportunity for logistics, warehousing, and industrial space. The government’s holistic approach to transform the logistics sector will ensure solid growth potential,” Asheesh Mohta, senior MD and head of real estate acquisitions in India for Blackstone.

    Blackstone, in April announced the final close of $30.4 billion for the largest ever real estate drawdown fund.

    A significant part of this fund is expected to flow into the logistics and data centres segment and geographically into Asia Pacific, especially India.

    There is already an alliance with realty major Hiranandani Group, for GreenBase Industrial & Logistics Park. Under the alliance, the two have jointly committed investment of over Rs 3,000 crore to develop industrial and logistics parks across key cities in India.

    As per Mohta, Blackstone will continue expanding its logistics presence in India’s prime urban centres led by its global experiences in logistics along with exceptional management capabilities.

    Blackstone has recently come up with separate India-dedicated platform, Horizon Industrial Parks, to house its 26 million sq ft logistics and warehousing assets and support its rapidly expanding logistics footprint across the country.

    Created through recent key acquisitions including Embassy Industrial Parks, TARC and Allcargo Logistics with over half a billion-dollar investments, the platform will act as the holding company for Blackstone’s all logistics and industrial parks-related assets and alliance.

    Blackstone’s logistics portfolio across major Indian cities including Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Pune and Hyderabad is anchored by tenants in fast-growing sectors such as ecommerce, retail, auto and logistics.

    Blackstone is one of the largest owner of warehousing spaces globally. It has so far invested over $55 billion in this segment and owns more than 575 million sq ft of warehousing space world over.

    It has already built high-quality logistics platforms around the world. These include Milestone in Australia, which the firm sold last year in the biggest private real estate transaction in the country; Mileway, the largest owner of last-mile logistics assets in Europe; and DragonCor in China, which ranks among the top five largest logistics portfolios in the country.

    Now the group is moving swiftly to create a large portfolio in India as it is holding advanced talks to acquire and build warehousing assets here.

    Blackstone has emerged as the owner of India’s largest office real estate portfolio, now it has set its sights on the country’s burgeoning warehousing and logistics sector.

    The Indian logistics and warehousing sector is on a transformative growth journey ever since the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and emergence of ecommerce. Also, the centre’s decision to accord industry status to the industry is allowing developers access to low-cost funds for the development.

    Developers are more likely to build compliant, large-sized spaces, given the fundamental shifts across the industrial and logistics sector and the growing demand for quality spaces.

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