NDR Warehousing plans to raise Rs 2,000 crore through InVIT this year

Logistics infrastructure major NDR Warehousing plans to raise Rs 2,000 crore through InVIT this year to retire old loans and fund the construction of new projects.

“The company is expected to file a DRHP by March with SEBI, and we expect to list by August. Some of our existing investors are looking to participate in the pre-InVIT round,” said Amrutesh Reddy, Managing Director, NDR Warehousing.

The Sebi website lists 19 registered InVits, and most are based in Mumbai and Delhi-NCR.

It currently has a 15 million square foot portfolio and plans to add 4-5 million square feet per year to its warehouses and industrial parks across the country.

“The idea is to have 19mn sq ft of portfolio by the time we go for InVIT. For the current portfolio, all the land and investments are tied up,” he said. The company currently has over 4 million square feet of warehousing and industrial assets under construction, with an investment of Rs 800 crore.

The company, backed by global investment manager Investcorp, is also looking at inorganic growth options and joint ventures to expand its portfolio. Last year, Investcorp led a $55-million investment in NDR Warehousing through a convertible instrument.

NDR Warehousing holds 150 acres of land in Mumbai, Chennai, the NCR, and Bengaluru. It has 12 million sq. ft. of operational assets comprising 18 logistics parks spread across eight cities, including Chennai, Mumbai, the NCR, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, and Kolkata.NDR Group, led by Reddy, entered the business of godowns and warehouses in the 1950s. It is the first to be granted a private sector bonded warehousing license in the country, the first to get into private freight terminals, and one of the first to set up container freight stations across the country.

The warehousing segment has been attracting interest from institutional investors, with more than $5 billion in funds committed by private equity firms and pension funds such as CPPIB, Warburg Pincus, and Ivanhoe Cambridge over the past five years.

The industrial and warehouse sector has remained resilient over the last few years.

“The fundamentals remain strong for India’s Industrial demand and Production Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes announced for key sectors by the government are expected to further boost local production fueling demand for organized industrial spaces and warehousing facilities. China plus one strategy is gaining more vigour and global companies are keen on shifting their manufacturing focus to India as part of their de-risking strategy. This would be a key trend to watch out for this year,” said Shyam Arumugam, Managing Director, Industrial & Logistics Services, Colliers India.

The year 2022 saw 24.5 million sq ft of industrial and warehouse demand, up 8% on a year-over-year basis across the top 5 cities in India. Average quarterly leasing during 2022 remained strong at 6.1 million square feet, up from 5.7 million square feet in 2021,” mentioned Colliers.