Brookfield India REIT appoints bankers, targets July for $400 mln raising -sources

Brookfield India Real Estate Trust

05/06/2023 06:23

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      Indian Brookfield REIT plans equity raising next month 
    

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      Investment banks hired including Morgan Stanley,
Kotak-sources
    

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      Funds raised to be used for acquisition, Brookfield said
in May
    

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      India real estate sector currently hot for dealmaking 
    

  
    By M. Sriram
       NEW DELHI, June 5 (Reuters) - Brookfield India Real
Estate Investment Trust (REIT)  BROF.NS  has appointed eight
investment banks for its planned equity raising of around $400
million, and is targeting the deal's closure by July, three
people with direct knowledge said.
    The Indian REIT of one of the world's largest alternative
asset groups Brookfield manages 18.7 million square feet (1.7
million square metres) of office parks and buildings in cities
such as Mumbai, Kolkata and Gurugram near New Delhi. Its tenants
include Accenture  ACN.F , Amazon  AMZN.O  and Samsung
Electronics  005930.KS .
    The trust told India's stock exchanges last month that it
planned to raise up to $425 million for a recently announced
$1.4 billion acquisition of 6.5 million square feet of Indian
offices with Singapore's GIC. It gave no details of a timeline
or how it would raise the funds.
    The sources said the Indian REIT has started the process to
complete the raising by July via a qualified institutional
placement, which is a tool used by listed companies to raise
funds from big investors such as mutual funds and insurance
companies. The sources declined to be named because the talks
are private.
    The mandated banks are Morgan Stanley  MS.N , Citigroup
 C.N , Bank of America  BAC.N  and Jefferies  JEF.N , as well as
local rivals Kotak, IIFL, JM Financial and Axis Capital, the
sources added.
    A Brookfield spokesperson declined to comment beyond its
exchange disclosure last month. Morgan Stanley and Citi declined
to comment, while the other banks did not respond to queries.
    Preliminary talks with potential investors are underway,
said one of the three sources.
    REITs own and operate real estate assets, earning rent from
the properties they manage that is used to distribute dividends
to investors.
    The deal plans come amid a slew of fundraisings in the
Indian real estate sector, as well as rising demand for office
space after the COVID-19 pandemic. 
    Blackstone-backed Nexus Select Trust  NEXE.NS  listed in
India last month, while another large developer Lodha  MACE.NS 
raised around $400 million in a share sale in December. 

 (Reporting by M. Sriram; Editing by Aditya Kalra and Jamie
Freed)
 ((Sriram.Mani@thomsonreuters.com;; Reuters Messaging: Twitter:
@followthemani))