Indiabulls to sell 50% in Mumbai assets to Blackstone for Rs 47.5 bn

In a major real estate deal, Indiabulls Real Estate (IBREL) has executed a definitive agreement with global private equity investor Blackstone Group to divest 50 per cent stake in its prime commercial properties in the megapolis for Rs 47.50 billion.

IBREL has executed transaction documents with the entities controlled by Blackstone to divest their entire holding in certain subsidiaries and thereby indirectly divesting 50 per cent stake in Indiabulls Properties Private Ltd (IPPL) and Indiabulls Real Estate Company (IRECPL) at an aggregate enterprise value of around $1,461.5 million or Rs 95 billion, the company had said in a BSE filing last evening.

"Substantial part of sale proceeds would be utilised towards repayment of existing debts of the company and its subsidiaries, and for achieving sustainable long term growth and for further strengthening of their on-going businesses," it said.

The transaction is expected to be completed by March 31.

Once this transaction is concluded, Indiabulls will cease its sole control over the two subsidiaries IPPL and IRECPL, Indiabulls added.

The company, did not give any details about the assets held by these two subsidiaries.

However, according to sources, the two subsidiaries hold premium commercial office assets, Indiabulls Finance Centre and One Indiabulls Centre, in central Mumbai.

Indiabulls in April last year had announced plans to restructure its business by creating a separate venture for commercial and leasing operations as part of efforts to focus on each segment.

It planned to hive off commercial and leasing business into a separate entity Indiabulls Commercial Assets Ltd.

In a recent announcement, the company said it plans to sell its housing and commercial assets in Chennai as part of strategy to exit non-core market and restructure its business.

The US-based Blackstone directly and along with its joint venture partner Embassy group is currently holding huge commercial assets with over 56 million sqft across major cities.

Embassy group is planning to launch the country's first real estate investment trust to monetise commercial assets.

Unlike housing sector, the commercial real estate is doing fairly well and attracting huge investment from global investors like Blackstone and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC.

In late December 2017, DLF promoters concluded sale of 40 per cent stake in rental arm for nearly Rs 120 billion. This deal included sale of 33.34 per cent stake to GIC for Rs 90 billion.

Few years back, Godrej Properties had sold over 4 lakh sq ft of office space in Bandra-Kurla complex for nearly Rs 15 billion.