Foreign investments galore in India’s warehousing market

Many large international players are now actively seeking entry points in the India warehousing market. “The liquidity infusion by global investors is prompting the market to develop more Grade-A warehousing space,” says Chandranath Dey, Senior Director and Head - Industrial Consulting and Supply Chain Consulting, JLL India. “Increased capital will ensure more quality space is being built to fulfil the demand for warehouses near emerging urban areas across the country.” Foreign investors are entering the sector through investment platforms with the mandate of investing in industrial warehousing parks across the major cities of the country, says the ICRA report. Often, this is done by partnering with a local developer or, in some cases, a global warehousing operator. Notably, the total amount of equity commitments to such platforms is at least $ 2.5 billion over the past two years. Such investment commitments can support assets under management of over 130 million sq ft, according to ICRA estimates. This is almost double the size of the current estimated stock of Grade-A industrial warehousing in India and about 10 times the operational portfolio of such platforms currently.Marquee Warehousing Platform Deals Investor Investee Investment (US $ million) Year CPPIB** IndoSpace 1,300 2017 Ascendas Firstspace 600 2017 Macquire + Ivanhoe’ Logos + Assetz 400 2017 GLP Everstone 500 2018 Allianz ESR 1,000 2018 GLP Indospace 700 2018 Temasek Holding Ascendas Firstspace 300 2018 Morgan Stanley KSH 50 2019 Source: JLL India **3 stage deals totalling $1.3 bn with $500 mn invested in JV IndoSpace Core, $700 mn for buying additional industrial and logistics parks and an additional $100 mn investment in IndoSpace Fund III *Some of the deals are commitments for investment and the funds may be deployed over a period in tranches. The deal details has been collected from media sources and JLL has not verified specific components.Investment plans in emerging locations Company New logistics centres Investment (in $ million) Type of cities Infibeam 75 5.8 NA Flipkart 100 500 Tier-II cities Amazon 7 110 Tier-II and Tier-III cities Snapdeal (Vulcan) 80 23.8 80 cities across India Connect India NA 5 Under-served regions Source: Knight Frank ResearchSERAPHINA D’SOUZA