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Bangalore: Private equity giant Blackstone Group and technology park developer Embassy Property Developments will look at listing a real estate investment trust (REIT), which owns and operates income yielding office space portfolio, on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

REITS are companies that hold real estate investments in rent income assets.

Last week, Blackstone sealed a Rs 1,015 crore deal with Embassy for a 50% stake in Pune Dynasty Projects, a special purpose vehicle (SPV) in which Embassy holds three of its FDI-compliant commercial business parks.
The business parks include Manyata Embassy Business Park and Embassy Golf Links Business Park, in Bangalore, and Embassy TechZone in Pune. Together, the three business parks yield annual rental income of about Rs 700 crore.
This news of Blackstone investing in Embassy’s tenanted office portfolio was first reported by TOI on July 11. “We are looking to build the commercial rentyielding assets in this SPV and at a later date will look at making this entity into a REIT, which can be listed,” said Jitendra Virwani, CMD, Embassy Group. In 2007, Virwani tried a REIT listing in Singapore. But at that time the markets tanked and the issue did not happen.
The Pune Dynasty Projects SPV has a commercial rent-yielding portfolio of 13.5 million sqft, which over the next couple of years is expected to increase to over 25 million sqft, as more commercial space is constructed at Manyata Embassy Business Park and Embassy TechZone.
The SPV is also charting an aggressive acquisition road map to increase its asset base. “Our focus will be on buying assets that have a ticket size between Rs 300 and Rs 500 crore,” said Virwani. He said the SPV was close to acquiring 1 million sqft of commercial business space in the central business district of Bangalore for about Rs 500 crore.
“The due diligence process has started,” he said.

Via : TOI