US private equity major Blackstone Group acquired 50% stake in 3.7-lakh sq ft Westend Mall in Pune.Property consultancy firm JLL India has facilitated the deal.Post-acquisition of retail malls in Ahmedabad, Amritsar and Navi Mumbai last year, this is the fourth mjor acquisition by the PE giant. Globally, Blackstone is the largest real estate private equity firm in the world today with over $360 billion of assets under management.
“Westend is the largest integrated mixed-use development in the micro-market of Aundh and Baner, which houses some of the top IT companies and an abundant residential catchment in the vicinity. The Westend Mall, a part of the development, is the largest operational retail mall in west Pune, with marquee brands such as H&M, Shoppers Stop, Cinepolis with IMAX, Max, Starbucks, etc. In addition to the mall, the development also houses top-notch IT companies like Convergys, Sungard, OneNetwork, etc,"said Sanjay Bajaj, Managing Director - Pune, JLL India.
Currently, Blackstone owns India's biggest portfolio of commercial real estate assets totalling over 30 million sq ft worth over a billion dollars across Noida, Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru.
Views of Joe Baratta Global Head of Private Equity Blackstone Group on Indian market:-
I think India is a lot more interesting now than it's been over the last five or six years and we've deployed a lot of capital in the last year and a half – maybe a billion dollars – of our private equity funds have been invested in India. Again, we're investing in larger sized transactions where we have control, where we're not reliant on a counterparty you know, to control the outcome and it's you know – we're seeing good growth, we're seeing a commitment in that government to reduce complexity and regulations.
