The manager of Ascendas India Trust (a-iTrust) has, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ascendas Property Fund (India) Pte Ltd (APFI), entered into definitive agreements for the proposed acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Anomalous Infra Private Limited.
Anomalous Infra Private Limited owns a warehouse with a total leasable area of 0.33 million sq ft, located at the Arshiya Free Trade Warehousing Zone, Panvel, Navi Mumbai.
The gross consideration for the warehouse is around 2.15 billion rupees ($38.7 million). The sum comprises an upfront payment of 1.94 billion rupees and an additional deferred consideration of up to 0.21 billion rupees. The additional deferred consideration is to be paid over the next four years, upon the achievement of certain performance milestones.
The warehouse has been recently constructed and is operational. It is being acquired from the Arshiya group as part of the forward purchase agreement executed in July 2019.
The REIT had previously already acquired six operating warehouses from the Arshiya group with a total leasable area of 0.83 million square feet in February 2018.
Similar to these six warehouses, the seventh warehouse will also be leased and operated by a subsidiary of the group for a period of six years. The acquisition of this warehouse is expected to be completed shortly.
See also: CICT's manager proposes to acquire ION Orchard at $1.85 billion, subject to EGM
“The acquisition enables a-iTrust to further expand its presence in the logistics sector. Given the unique benefits offered by the free trade warehousing zone (FTWZ) logistics segment, we are seeing growing demand in this space and this acquisition puts us in a good position to capitalise on this growth,” says Sanjeev Dasgupta, CEO of the manager.
Units in a-iTrust closed 2 cents lower or 1.63% down at $1.21 on March 23.
