Xander-Dutch APG venture buys two Tata Realty malls for Rs 700 crore

Virtuous Retail South Asia (VRSA), a joint venture between private equity fund Xander and Dutch pension fund APG, has bought malls from Tata Sons-owned real estate company Tata Realty & Infrastructure for about Rs 700 crore. The properties are based in Amritsar, Punjab, and in Nagpur, Maharashtra.

The 1-million sq ft Trilium Mall is spread across 5.5 acres in Amritsar while the 700,000 sq ft property is based in Nagpur. The acquisition would help VRSA to surpass its portfolio to that of Blackstone-owned Nexus Malls, which has a portfolio of six million sq ft. Currently, VRSA has 5.4 million sq ft of properties across Surat, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Punjab.

With these new acquisitions and the recently announced 20-acre acquisition in Mumbai, VRSA’s operational and under-construction retail portfolio in the country is now about 13 million sq ft across the metros and other big cities, VRSA said on Tuesday. However, Blackstone is also looking to buy new malls and double its portfolio in the next one year. VRSA will invest additional capital and resources in repositioning and rebranding Trilium Mall as community-centric, flagship VR centers, it said.

Sources said since Tata Realty is focusing on metros and other markets, both the properties are considered non -crore. VRSA could launch a real estate investment trust and list it, the sources said.

Sid Yog, founder and chairman of the board, VRSA, said, “We are pleased to expand our footprint in Maharashtra and Punjab and add two strategic assets to our award-winning retail portfolio in India. The acquisition of Tata Realty retail portfolio provides an immediate opportunity to convert two existing, well-built assets into people-centric VR flagship centres in two Indian cities.”