The Financial Express
Global investor The Xander Group is looking to monetise its fund set up in 2015. The fund is part of its office platform. The platform has multiple institutional investors from Europe and the US. “As part of this office platform, Xander is monetising its 2015 Vintage Fund, which is focused on value-added office investments. This may include hiving-off individual assets, partial or a combined exit to deliver maximum value,” sources familiar with the development said.
In 2014, Xander floated a $300-million fund to invest in office properties. Xander has invested $5 billion in India since 2005.
In 2017, the group bought a special economic zone from Shriram Group in Chennai for Rs 2,290 crore. In 2018, Xander bought a 250,000-sq ft office building at Embassy Golf Links Business Park in Bengaluru for Rs 350 crore from Sanjay Ghodawat Group.
In 2019, it purchased an office property in Pune from another PE firm, New Vernon, for Rs 900 crore. Xander, however, did not offer any comments for the story.
According to sources, Xander is restructuring assets in Banaglore, Pune and the National Capital Region (NCR) to create a new platform and get Singaporean sovereign fund GIC as an investor. Chennai assets won’t be part of the new platform, sources said.
A mail sent to GIC did not elicit any response.
GIC recently emerged as the highest bidder for Waverock property, owned by Shaporji Pallonji and Allianz joint venture, in Hyderabad. “Basically, Xander will create some liquidity by getting GIC,” sources said.
Besides office properties, Xander has invested in several asset classes in the country. It established Xander Finance in 2010 to lend to Indian real estate developers and corporates.
In 2016, Dutch pension fund APG Asset Management and mall development and management firm Virtuous Retail, sponsored by The Xander Group, had formed this $450-million joint venture. In 2019, Xander Group’s private equity arm launched a $250-million industrial real estate platform in India to acquire logistics assets. In 2021, Xander Group invested `78 crore in Sanctum Wealth, a wealth management firm based in Mumbai.
The group pioneered foreign investment in the Indian real estate sector in 2005. Its businesses include private equity real estate, private debt, real estate development and operations.
GIC has also been quite active in Indian real estate in the last couple of years. In November last year, GIC floated a $600-million JV with Asia-Pacific-focused real estate services and investment company ESR Group to acquire income-producing core industrial and logistics assets in country.
In June 2021, it partnered with mall developer Phoenix Mills to establish a $733-million (about Rs 5,362 crore) investment platform for retail-led mixed-use assets in the country.
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