Amidst the overall economic slowdown, the enthusiasm of private equity firms towards Indian real estate continues to remain unabated. Their investment in the first three quarters of 2019 was seen on a constant rise.
As per a recent report, private equity investment volumes for year to date 2019 figures are higher on comparable YoY basis. The first three quarters in 2019 have attracted close to Rs 39,182 crore, which is 19% up from a year ago period. Over 83.5% of these funds were infused by them as equity capital indicating their appetite for Indian real estate sector, The Economic Times reported.
The office segment remained the favored investment asset class with expectation of further traction in the near term. Talking city-wise, Mumbai led the quarterly investments at a city-level, with a 24% share. MMR was followed by Hyderabad and Pune with shares of 9.3% and 9.0%, respectively in fund inflows.
Interestingly, Hyderabad saw the sharpest quarterly increase among all cities with investment inflows increasing by a multiple of 5.6 times on-quarter. Multi-city investments (across Maharashtra and Haryana) had a 47.3% share in the quarter’s fund inflows with two notable transactions in the office and industrial segments.
Among the major transactions, Blackstone continues to rule with its latest move of buying remaining 50% stake in the office assets of Indiabulls Real Estate in Mumbai and Delhi NCR. Another major deal that dominated the quarter was by Virtuous Retail, the Xander-APG retail platform, when it announced an investment of Rs 2,400 crore for acquisition of a land parcel in Thane, Mumbai for development of a retail project as part of a greenfield mixed-use project.
Xander Investment Management also acquired Weikfield IT Info Park in Pune from New Vernon Capital in yet another key office transaction during the quarter.
Following the successful listing of Embassy-Blackstone platform, a slew of new listings are expected to follow soon. K Raheja Properties are reportedly next in line with RMZ and Godrej Properties most likely to follow soon.
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