Blackstone sells 77 mn shares of Embassy REIT for Rs 2,650 cr

Embassy Office Parks REIT is the country's first REIT, which was launched last year by realty firm Embassy group and global investment firm Blackstone to raise nearly Rs 5,000 cr

Global fund Blackstone on Tuesday raised around USD 325 million (about Rs 2,650 crore) by selling its shares in Embassy Office Parks REIT to monetise part of its investment, according to sources.

Embassy Office Parks REIT is the country's first Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), which was launched last year by realty firm Embassy group and global investment firm Blackstone to raise nearly Rs 5,000 crore. The REIT is listed on the stock exchange.

According to the sources, Blackstone raised USD 325 million (Rs 2,650 crore) by selling 7.7 crore shares/units in the REIT to institutional investors through block deals at Rs 345 per share.

Post this deal, Blackstone's stake will come down to 24 per cent from around 32 per cent shareholding earlier.

As per the sources, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Kotak have bought shares in the block deal. ICICI Prudential, HDFC Life and Kotak Mutual Fund are among other buyers.

The Embassy Group has around a 15 per cent stake.

When contacted, Blackstone declined to comment.

This is the third time Blackstone is monetising its investment in Embassy REIT.

Blackstone has emerged as the most aggressive institutional investor in India with overall assets under management estimated to be at USD 60 billion across various sectors, making it one of the top 10 business groups in the country.

Real estate accounts for nearly USD 22 billion of this market value across over 40 investments.

Blackstone is the largest office owner in India with an office portfolio of around 100 million sq ft across 38 assets in 7 cities. Of this, around 13 million sq ft offices are under construction and 16 million sq ft for future development.

It has created the Nucleus Office Parks platform with 22 million sq ft for hosting 100 percent-owned commercial assets.

The global fund also owns over 10 million sq ft of retail space under the Nexus Mall portfolio and 35.5 million sq ft of logistics space under Horizon Industrial Parks portfolio and Greenbase Industrial and Logistics Park.

The market value of Blackstone's Real Estate India investments is around USD 22 billion.

Blackstone has launched two REITs in the country - Embassy REIT and Mindspace REIT. It has already exited from Mindspace REIT.

Embassy REIT is India's first publicly listed Real Estate Investment Trust. It owns and operates a 42.8 million square feet portfolio of eight infrastructure-like office parks and four city-centre office buildings in India's best-performing office markets of Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, and the National Capital Region (NCR).

Its portfolio comprises 33.8 million square feet of the completed operating area. The portfolio also comprises strategic amenities, including four operational business hotels, two under-construction hotels and a 100 MW solar park supplying renewable energy to tenants.