Ascendas India Trust proposes to acquire Panvel warehouse for 2.2b rupees

ASCENDAS India Trust (a-iTrust) CY6U on Thursday (Mar 24) entered into definitive agreements to acquire a 330,000 square foot warehouse in Panvel, Navi Mumbai, for 2.2 billion rupees (S$38.7 million).

a-iTrust will acquire the recently constructed warehouse from Arshiya Group as part of a forward purchase agreement executed in July 2019, the trustee-manager said in a bourse filing.

The 2.2 billion rupee consideration comprises an upfront payment of 1.9 billion rupees and an additional deferred consideration of up to 210 million rupees to be paid over the next 4 years when certain performance milestones are achieved.

After the acquisition is completed, a-iTrust will enter into a lease agreement with Arshiya Panvel FTWZ Services to lease back the property for 6 years. Arshiya Panvel FTWZ Services will operate and manage the property and pay rent during its term.

The multi-storeyed warehouse is located in the Arshiya Free Trade Warehousing Zone (Panvel FTWZ). It sits on a land plot spanning 5.5 acres (2.2 hectares) and is the 7th warehouse to be acquired in the Panvel FTWZ after a-iTrust acquired 6 warehouses with a total area of 830,000 square feet in February 2018.

The trustee-manager has engaged CBRE South Asia to carry out an independent valuation of the property as at Mar 10. It added that the "open market value" of the warehouse is about 2.5 billion rupees.

a-iTrust units were trading 0.8 per cent or S$0.01 higher at S$1.22 as at 10.20 am on Thursday.

READ MORE: Ascendas India Trust to acquire 7th warehouse in India for S$42m