Singapore-listed Ascendas India Trust has agreed to forward purchase a 325,503 sq.ft. warehouse development in the Arshiya Free Trade Warehousing Zone in Panvel for S$42.1m (US$31m).
The trust will fund the construction of the property and acquire the asset from logistics firm Arshiya when it is completed, the buyer said.
The new project will join the six operating warehouses at Panvel FTWZ, located near Navi Mumbai, that the trust purchased in February 2018, in addition to the rights to develop further warehouses at the site with the vendor.
“The proposed construction funding of the new warehouse, upon completion, will further enhance a-iTrust’s position in the fast-growing logistics sector in India,” said Sanjeev Dasgupta, CEO of the trustee-manager.
“We are seeing increased tenant demand since our initial acquisition of the six operating warehouses at Panvel FTWZ.”
The six standing warehouses at Panvel FTWZ are almost fully let already, having attracted multinational tenants including DHL Logistics, Huawei and Rolex Logistics, the third-party logistics provider for Cisco Systems.
A subsidiary of the vendor will occupy the new warehouse on a six-year master lease arrangement once completed.
Last month, the trust forward purchased the BlueRidge 3 IT complex development in Pune, Maharashtra, from Nalanda Shelter and Brickmix Developers.
A-iTrust focuses on the IT and logistics industries in India, with a portfolio comprising seven IT parks and six warehouses across Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai.
Its portfolio also includes the International Tech Park Bangalore, International Tech Park Chennai and CyberVale in Chennai and the Arshiya warehouses near Mumbai.
The trust was listed on the Singapore stock exchange in 2007 as the first Indian property trust in Asia.
The trust was sponsored by Singapore-listed property firm Ascendas-Singbridge before the group was acquired by Singapore-headquartered CapitaLand earlier this year.