India’s leading real-estate developer, Lodha today announced a partnership with Bain Capital and Ivanhoé Cambridge to develop a next-generation green digital infrastructure platform. The platform will establish a pan-India presence in the digital infrastructure space that includes logistics and light industrial parks as well as in-city fulfilment centers.
The platform will jointly invest ~US$1 billion to create ~30 million sq ft of operating assets to serve India’s digital economy. Each of the three partners will have a ~33% equity interest in the property ownership, whilst Lodha will lead the development, operations and management of the assets.
Commenting on the partnership, Abhishek Lodha, MD & CEO, Lodha said, “With the rapid digitisation of our economy and the progress of ‘Make in India’ combined with the China + 1 strategy of most global manufacturers, we see that there is a huge demand for Grade-A digital infrastructure in our country. Following the government’s focus on improving logistics efficiency and creating jobs in different parts of the country, the platform will plan the development of industrial and logistics parks as well in-city fulfilment centers across multiple cities in India. And we will focus on building and operating this digital infrastructure to the highest levels of environmental sustainability with the view to creating a global benchmark. We’re delighted to expand our partnership with 2 marquee global investors – lvanhoé Cambridge and Bain Capital, who bring extensive experience in this asset class and dedicated resources to support the growth of this platform.”
The first project is a ~110-acre logistics and industrial park development at Palava, an established location for digital infrastructure in Mumbai. Additionally, the platform has already started looking at the pan-India acquisitions of land and developed/ under-development projects in these asset classes.
“This is an exciting partnership that brings together an experienced real estate developer with deep digital infrastructure capabilities with the complementary support of global investors with long track records of success in commercial real estate,” said Ali Haroon, a Managing Director at Bain Capital.
“We see a sustained, thematic opportunity to support India’s journey to a digital-first economy with high-quality infrastructure, which we believe can have a very positive impact on communities, consumers and businesses throughout the country” he added.
“This partnership opens up new perspectives for expansion of our logistics portfolio in India, a high conviction nthesis well supported by strong sector fundamentals as India enters a digital super cycle,” commented Chanakya Chakravarti, Vice President & Managing Director, India, at lvanhoé Cambridge.
“We believe the Indian logistics ecosystem continues to offer opportunities driven by positive trends in urbanisation, domestic consumption, new impetus to the light manufacturing sector, modernising multi-modal infrastructure and the rapidly evolving e-commerce sector, which remains largely under penetrated, compared to other major economies globally. We look forward to expanding our logistics footprint by leveraging Lodha’s proprietary in-city sites, access to land pads in key warehousing nodes and their execution capabilities. The new partnership potentially enables lvanhoé Cambridge access to near city logistics opportunities as operators pivot to establish same day delivery solutions thus creating differentiated value in our portfolio construct and its scale,” he added.
Bain Capital is a leading global investment platform with deep experience supporting the development of bestin-class logistics, industrial, warehousing and digital assets. Real estate is a core focus of Bain Capital Asia’s Special Situation business and this transaction follows the firm’s approach to building value-added partnerships with skilled local developers.
lvanhoé Cambridge, a global real estate industry leader and subsidiary of Caisse de dépdt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a global investment group, is involved in developing and investing in high-quality real-estate properties.
Lodha is already developing ~300 acres of Industrial and Logistics Park near Navi Mumbai, which is almost completely leased out. The company had recently announced a JV with Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI) for developing 72 acres at the park. The park is home to global clients such as FM Logistic, Flyjac Logistics, Aptar Pharma and many more, testifying the unique proposition of Grade-A industrial and warehousing park with high-quality infrastructure.
