Embassy to invest $1 bn to raise warehousing space to 30 mn sq ft, says CEO

He said the domestic logistics sector is projected to grow at CAGR 13 per cent to Rs 9.2 trillion by 2019-20

Betting big on the growing demand for warehousing, Embassy Industrial Parks plans to invest around $1 billion in 3-4 years to take its total space 30 million sq ft, a senior company official has said.

Various policy decisions like the implementation of GST and e-way bill have given a boost to the logistics sector, the company said.

"This coupled with the growth in the e-commerce and retail sectors has necessitated a sharp growth in warehousing in the country," the company's CEO Anshul Singhal told PTI.

He said the domestic logistics sector is projected to grow at CAGR 13 per cent to Rs 9.2 trillion (Rs 9.2 lakh crore) by 2019-20, from Rs 6.4 trillion in 2016-17.

Therefore, it is estimated that Grade A and B warehousing stock will grow at a CAGR of 21 per cent year-on-year taking the total tally of warehouse space in India to 297 million sq ft by the end of 2021, which is double the current warehousing stock of 139.8 million square feet in 2017, Singhal said.

"We will also see huge demand for Grade A warehousing space from sectors like pharma, healthcare, FMCG and apparels among others and we are aggressively looking at opportunities to set up modern and well-planned facilities," Singhal said.

The company currently has a portfolio of close to 6-7 million sq ft of leasable space and plans to take it to up to 30 million over the next 3-4 years, he said.

"We wish to add nearly 5-6 million sq ft each year and we be investing around $1 billion over the next 3-4 years. Our focus is to buy land and develop it into world class facilities. But we are open to exploring the brownfield expansion route as well," he said

Nearly 80 per cent would be greenfield development, he added.

When asked how was the company planning to fund its expansion he said: "It will be a mix of equity and debt. We will infuse equity to the extent of $250 million or Rs 16 billion and the rest we will borrow on debt."

The company has three industrial parks -- one each in Pune, Gurugram and Farrukhnagar (Haryana) and is looking at cities like Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai.