Blackstone will sell a stake worth up to $400 million in Embassy Office Parks REIT, the country’s largest real estate investment trust, through block deals on the stock exchange, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. affair.
The Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, one of the world’s largest, is likely to acquire at least half of the stake that Blackstone will sell, one of the sources said. Embassy Office Parks, India’s first publicly traded REIT in 2019, owns and operates a portfolio of more than 42 million square feet of office parks and office buildings in cities including Bangalore and Mumbai. It is the largest office REIT in Asia by area.
In block deals planned on Indian bourses early next week, the Blackstone sale would be worth between $300 million and $400 million, said the sources, who declined to be named because the discussions are private and sensitive.
Spokespeople for Blackstone and the Bengaluru-based embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) in Abu Dhabi declined to comment.
Shares of the Embassy REIT closed at 354.42 Indian rupees on Friday in Mumbai, giving it a market capitalization of $4.15 billion. Blackstone currently holds a 32 percent stake in Embassy REIT and, at current market value, Blackstone’s proposed sale would represent between 7.2 percent and 9.6 percent of its stake, according to Reuters calculations.
The block swap will be Blackstone’s third sale of Embassy’s stake, following two such sales in 2020 and 2021, where the private equity group sold shares collectively worth more than $500 million.
Blackstone has invested more than $11 billion in Indian companies and assets over the years, but over time has been scaling back its interests in Indian REITs.
Earlier this year, it sold its entire stake in India’s Mindspace Business Parks REIT for $235 million.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
