Bahrain-based asset manager Investcorp Group has made a follow-on investment in infrastructure NDR Warehousing Private Limited, a warehouse development and operations platform.
The private equity player, following its earlier investment in the warehousing platform’s $55-million round, has now signed another cheque valued Rs 500 crore or nearly $61 million, as warehousing remains a key investment theme for Investcorp.
“We anticipate strong tailwinds and a long runway ahead for the sector and with an InvIT listing under evaluation, we expect NDR will be well positioned to capitalise on these market dynamics,” said Ritesh Vohra, partner and head of real estate at Investcorp India.
In February last year, the asset manager led a $55 million funding round in NDR Warehousing in a structured equity investment.
NDR’s asset portfolio comprises 14 million sq ft of operational assets spread across 10 cities in India including Chennai, Mumbai, the National Capital Region (NCR), Bangalore, Pune, Coimbatore and Kolkata. With about 95% occupancy rate at these properties, the Chennai-based firm has about 5 million sq ft of under-construction/proposed assets as it plans to list a part of its portfolio as an Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT).
A VCCircle analysis showed that there has been a recent spike in investors who look at InvITs as a lucrative opportunity. In April, it was reported that Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd was likely to come up with a $2.4-3 billion InvIT that would house the conglomerate’s warehousing and logistics assets as it seeks to unlock value from them.
In May, it was reported that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), would come up with the third and fourth tranches of its InvITs in 2023-24 and that it would raise Rs 20,000 crore via these vehicles. 
However, besides NDR, Investcorp’s India investment arm has deployed over $350 million across the warehousing, residential and education related sectors broadly, with a focus on social infrastructure developments.
The global asset management entity, however, currently manages assets valued over $50 billion, and has also made some exits from its portfolio in India.
Last month, VCCircle reported that Investcorp had partially exited a more than a decade-old consumer bet by selling a stake in publicly listed dairy player Parag Milk Foods. An analysis by VCCircle showed that the firm generated an internal rate of return (IRR) of around 12% from its partial exit, leaving a stake valued about Rs 13 crore in the company.
