Ascendas to buy warehouse project in Navi Mumbai for Rs 215 crore

Ascendas India Trust (a-iTrust) on Thursday said it will buy 0.33 million square feet warehouse project in Navi Mumbai for Rs 215 crore.

Ascendas Property Fund Trustee Pte Ltd, the trustee manager of a-iTrust said in a statement it has entered into definitive agreements for the proposed acquisition of all of the issued share capital of Anomalous Infra Pvt Ltd, which owns a 0.33 million square feet warehouse at the Arshiya Free Trade Warehousing Zone, Panvel, Navi Mumbai.

This is a recently-constructed operational warehouse and is being acquired from the Arshiya Group as part of the forward purchase agreement executed in July 2019.

a-iTrust had acquired six operating warehouses from the Arshiya group with total leasable area of 0.83 million square feet in February 2018.

Similar to these six warehouses, the seventh warehouse will also be leased and operated by a subsidiary of Arshiya for a period of six years. The acquisition of this warehouse is expected to be completed shortly.

"The gross acquisition consideration for this seventh warehouse is approximately Rs 2.15 billion. It comprises an upfront payment of Rs 1.94 billion and an additional deferred consideration of up to Rs 0.21 billion to be paid over the next four years, upon achievement of certain performance milestones," the statement said.

Sanjeev Dasgupta, Chief Executive Officer of the Trustee-Manager said, the acquisition enables a-iTrust to further expand its presence in the logistics sector.

"Given the unique benefits offered by the FTWZ logistics segment, we are seeing growing demand in this space and this acquisition puts us in a good position to capitalise on this growth," he said.

Ascendas India Trust (a-iTrust) was listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd (SGX-ST) in August 2007 as the first Indian property trust in Asia.

As of December 31, 2021, a-iTrust's asset under management stands at Singapore dollar 2.4 billion.

Its portfolio includes seven IT business parks, one logistics park and one data centre development in India, with total completed floor area of 15 million square feet spread across Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai.