Chennai: Nearly one third of the country’s total private equity investments in real estate amounting to $14 billion came from entities based in Singapore, said a report.
Released by property consulting firm ANAROCK, the report titled “Private Equity in Indian Real Estate” took to consideration the period between 2015 and 2018.
The investments that came from private equity firms like the state-backed GIC, Ascendas and Xander, have been gradually rising, said the report and added that in total, the firms put in a total of $1.15 billion in 2015 and 2016, before tripling the amount to $3.5 billion in 2017 and 2018.
In the past four years, GIC has invested close to $2.5 billion, mainly in cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and NCR. For Ascendas, the preferred regions have been Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
The report said firms are also investing in logistics, factories and warehousing, apart from focussing on commercial properties.
The biggest deal in realty came in 2017, when GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, took a 33 per cent stake in DLF, an Indian realty major, in a Rs 90 billion deal, stated the report.
“With funding from banks and non-banking financial companies drying up, Indian developers are being forced to explore debt and equity funding from various PE firms. Singapore investors were on top of the list, followed by PE players from US and Canada. After establishing a strong base in China, India was their next destination of preference,” said managing director and CEO, ANAROCK Capital, Shobhit Agarwal.
Singapore-based investors and developers have gained a substantial foothold in India’s property market over the last four years, with their more patient and long-term outlook, he said.
Meanwhile, US-based investors such as Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Hines, Warburg Pincus and Proprium Capital have invested nearly $4 billion in India in the last four years. Blackstone infused $2.9 billion in this period.
PE firms from Canada, led by Brookefield and CPPIB were the third largest investors with capital infusion of close to $2.3 billion in four years.