In a bid to ramp up investment in the country, Singapore-listed IT park developer Ascendas Pte Ltd (Ascendas) has launched the Ascendas India Growth Programme with a target asset size of S$600 million (Rs 3000 crore or $481.5 million) to invest in Indian real estate, focusing on business space. Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd is a principal investor in the programme.
The programme targets to invest in business space developments which may have other complementary users and pre-stabilised business space assets in the cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune.
“The Programme builds upon our presence in India and offers an opportunity to share our expertise in developing and managing business space in the market. We are happy to have attracted GIC, a globally experienced, long-term investor, as a principal investor," said Manohar Khiatani, president and CEO of Ascendas.
Based in Singapore, Ascendas serves as a global clientele of over 2,400 customers in 25 cities across 10 countries, including Singapore, China, India, South Korea and Australia. It has already two India-focused funds named Ascendas India Trust, which has invested in six companies, and Ascendas India Development Trust.
GIC opened its India office in Mumbai in 2011 and has been a fairly aggressive investor since then. The fund with Ascendas will be its second move in the real estate space after it tied up with private equity major KKR & Co to set up an NBFC which will lend funds to property developers in India.
It has closed two large deals along with Bain Capital, where it picked direct equity stakes in world’s largest bike-maker Hero MotoCorp and business process outsourcing player Genpact.
Other investments in this year are Greenko Mauritius Ltd, NTPC Ltd, Vrindavan Tech Village Pvt Ltd and Sintex Industries Ltd.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
