Nexus Select Trust has filed the draft paper with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Thursday. The global investment firm Blackstone-sponsored company's initial public offering (IPO) is the first public issue of retail Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). Blackstone intends to raise $500 million through the public issue.
Nexus Select Trust has filed the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with the SEBI and is looking to hit the capital market with India's first retail REIT public issue in the first half of 2023 calendar year. Nexus Select Trust has a portfolio of 17 operational shopping malls across 14 major cities, covering about 10 million square feet area valued around $3 billion.
This will be the third REIT sponsored by the Blackstone. It had earlier launched India's first REIT— Embassy Office Parks REIT — and then Mindspace Business Parks REIT.
The REIT, a popular instrument globally, was introduced in India a few years ago to attract investment in the real estate sector by monetising rent-yielding assets. It helps unlock the massive value of real estate assets and enable participation of retail investors.
At present, there are three listed REITs — Embassy Office Parks REIT, Mindspace Business Parks REIT and Brookfield India Real Estate Trust — on Indian stock exchanges but all these are of leased office assets. Nexus Select Trust will be the first REIT with rent-yielding retail real estate assets.
In its portfolio of 10 million square feet of retail real estate, Nexus Select Trust has also included Select Citywalk mall in south Delhi. There are around 3,000 stores in its shopping malls while the number of brands are approximately 1,000.
India's first REIT of Rs 4,750 crore issue size was listed in April 2019 by Embassy Office Parks, sponsored by Blackstone and realty firm Embassy Group.
In August 2020, K Raheja and Blackstone-sponsored Mindspace Business Parks launched the country's second REIT to raise Rs 4,500 crore. Global investment firm Brookfield has listed the country's third REIT after raising Rs 3,800 crore through an IPO.
