Bengaluru
: India and Xander Investment Management hope to make profits in their respective warehousing assets in the country, which are three people familiar with the plan say because of investors’ interest in industrial real estate.
The people mentioned said both will sell 100% of their shares in their respective portfolios to investors, all of whom speak on anonymous condition.
ESR India is a joint venture between ESR Group in Hong Kong and Allianz Real Estate in Germany, a well-known logistics and industrial real estate company with approximately 10 million square feet of warehouse assets in the country’s cities.
“In 2023, ESR-Allianz held talks with multiple investors, including the Blackstone Group, to sell most of its shares in its portfolio (about 90%), but the talks fell. At the time, their valuation was $400 million. This time, they planned to revoke completely and should get a higher valuation.”
ESR established a partnership with Allianz in 2018 and said they will invest about $1 billion, including debt, to develop large storage and industrial facilities in India.
Singapore’s Xander Investment Management has multiple investments in its office and retail industry in India, setting up a $250 million industrial real estate business in 2019.
“Xander’s Portfolio has four warehousing properties in Chennai, Bagnan (near Kolkata) and Bhiwandi (near Mumbai). As an asset management company, it plans to monetize its portfolio and hopes to evacuate completely,” the second person said.
A spokesperson for ESR India and Xander did not respond to Mint’s questions. The total warehousing stock in India is about 438 million square feet. According to Property Advisory JLL India data, about 238 million square feet of Class A space in its first eight cities.
The 238 million square feet of approximately 100 million square feet are owned by institutional operators and investors, compared with only 28 million square feet in 2019, indicating growing investor confidence in the logistics industry.
Investment surges
Logistics and warehouses have become clear leaders in all real estate asset classes in 2024-25, including residential and commercial offices as well as retail, attracting the highest private equity funding in five years, according to Anarock Capital’s latest report.
As the warehouse industry has seen, global investors are chasing industrial assets for the first time more than those invested in office assets that have been the highest investments.
Earlier this year, global asset manager Blackstone Group purchased three warehouse parks with the Indian logo in Luhari and Chennai in Haryana. ₹17 billion. The deal included 13 bids, including several global investors.
For the ESR India and Xander deals, real estate analysts also believe there will be many serious bidders.
MINT recently reported that US-based Prologis Inc. is the world’s largest warehouse owner, planning to invest about $500 million in India by 2026 to build a large number of warehouse parks in the country. Canadian investor Brookfield has also been exploring opportunities to enter the country’s warehouse space.
“Investors are interested so much that the funds chasing warehouse assets are more available than quality assets. At fair market valuations, transactions are happening. Obviously, there are more interest and investors in warehouse real estate than in offices.”
