Indiabulls Real Estate offloads stake in Mariana Infra to Blackstone for Rs 810 crore

Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd (IREL) is selling its entire stake in Mariana Infrastructure Ltd along with commercial assets in Mumbai to the Blackstone Group for Rs 810.7 crore.

The company and its certain subsidiaries have entered into definitive agreements with entities controlled by Blackstone, which is a globally renowned US-based real estate private equity investor, to divest the entire stake in Mariana Infrastructure and the commercial assets and development at Mumbai.

Mariana Infrastructure owns a major commercial project at Gurugram.

Indiabulls Real Estate said the sale of the properties is expected to be completed by the year-end.

In September, IREL had announced that it had signed a term sheet agreement with Blackstone Group to offload its remaining 50 per cent stake in commercial assets for about Rs 4,420 crore.

 

Indiabulls Group has said it plans to embark on a clear and simple path to achieve zero net debt in the current financial year through strategic divestment of its stakes in certain commercial and leasing business assets.

At the end of last financial year 2018-19, the company's total net debt stood at Rs 4,590 crore. Blackstone had concluded a similar deal for 50 per cent of the portfolio for nearly Rs 4,750 crore in March 2018, making it one of the country's largest such transactions in real estate.

Reports say the move will give Blackstone control of a five million square feet portfolio, including several marquee properties like One Indiabulls and Indiabulls Finance Centre in Mumbai's Lower Parel and Prabhadevi areas, two in Gurugram and one in New Delhi.

Blackstone had fully acquired the Indiabulls' Chennai commercial property separately for about Rs 850 crore last year. It is expected to add the assets acquired from Indiabulls Real Estate to the portfolio of Embassy Office Parks Real Estate Investment Trust, its joint venture with Bengaluru-based realty developer Embassy Group.

Blackstone -- the US-based private equity, alternative asset management and financial services firm -- has emerged as the most aggressive institutional investor in India's real estate sector with a commitment of over 5.3 billion dollars (about Rs 38,000 crore) in property markets of Mumbai, Noida, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.