ESR India, a Warburg Pincus-backed logistics development platform, is planning to acquire at least 8 new warehousing projects in the country and these transactions are expected to be concluded over the next year, informed a top company official.
As per the source, the new additions will mostly be greenfield land acquisitions besides around 6 million sq ft of projects. The latter will get operational by the end of this year, with an objective of at least 25% annual growth hereon.
The logistics real estate platform, which has $22 billion of assets under management, is one of the largest warehousing players in India with 15 warehousing properties across eight major cities.
“We are extremely bullish on India and would like it to be one of our top markets and continue to push further. We believe the gap in demand and supply for grade A (warehousing) space remains still wide open and that’s a huge opportunity. Both during COVID19 and post-pandemic, this is one asset class that has and will continue to grow, it’s the need of the hour.”
~Abhijit Malkani, Co-country head at ESR India, told ET
With an increased demand in segments like e-commerce, cold storage, pharmaceuticals, and retail in the past few months, the company has witnessed “exponential growth” in its business, informs Malkani.
The logistics development platform is big on investment and growth plans in the country. In recent developments, Singapore’s sovereign fund GIC entered into an 80:20 strategic partnership with ESR to set up a $750-million joint venture to develop and acquire industrial and logistics assets in India.
“As far as our growth plans are concerned along with the GIC, we are very bullish on the market, we are continuing to acquire land parcels in key metros and also start focusing on tier-II cities,” Malkani said while adding that at the moment ESR’s focus has been on the metros including Mumbai, Pune, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore which the company considers as its top markets.
According to him, these markets will continue to push and strengthen ESR’s positions as these cities have big potential for demand and growth.
The company plans to invest INR 330 crore to develop an industrial and logistics park at Chakan in Pune, spread over 38 acres. The new logistics park will be ESR’s second such development in Chakan and will serve as the hub for light manufacturing and logistics operations in the western region of the country.
Apart from Pune, ESR India is currently developing warehousing projects at Hosur in Bengaluru, Farrukhnagar and Bilaspur in Delhi-NCR, Kothur in Hyderabad, and Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.
Besides its push for acquisitions, the company is also putting a lot of focus on ready buildings, cold storage, multi-storied spaces for city distribution, plug and play facilities for the industry.
