Blackstone to enter warehousing business

Global private equity firm Blackstone Group Inc has formed a joint venture with Greenbase, a Hiranandani group firm, to develop warehousing and logistics parks across the country. This marks the entry of Blackstone, a US-based company, into the Indian warehousing and logistics sector. The equal joint venture plans to invest Rs 2500 crore to develop around 12 million sqft of industrial and warehousing assets across the country in three to four years, said Niranjan Hiranandani, founder and managing director, Hiranandani Group. “We have a very bullish view on the economy in the long term. Logistics and warehousing will be one of the major beneficiaries of this growth. The joint venture’s investment will also contribute to economic growth as well as employment generation in the relevant locations,” Hiranandani said. The Blackstone-Hiranandani platform will initially build industrial parks at Greenbase’s 267 acres land in Pune, 115 acres in Chennai’s industrial suburb Oragadam, 73 acres in Nashik, and 25 acres in Durgapur. The company has successfully closed customer transactions of about 1 million-square-foot for built-to-suit space with end-users such as Coopers (for Talegaon) and Vestas (at Oragadam), according to Shridhar, group director and CEO of infrastructure (industrial and logistics), Greenbase. The partnership would allow Blackstone to tap the growing Indian warehousing market. Blackstone has been expanding its commercial real estate portfolio rapidly in India, However, it has also been looking for opportunities to enter into the industrial warehousing business. A spokesperson with Blackstone chose not to comment.