Brookfield India Real Estate Trust launches Rs 1,500 crore Qualified Institutional Placement

The country's first publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) Brookfield India Real Estate Trust (BIRET) launched its qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue to raise Rs 1,500 crore. The SEBI floor price is Rs 265.79 apiece, but the indicative offer price is at Rs 252.5 per share, which is at a 4.1 percent discount to Thursday's close of Rs 263.25 apiece on the NSE.

BIRET is among four listed REITs on the Indian stock exchanges. Its portfolio comprises five large campus-format office parks located in Mumbai, Gurugram, Noida, and Kolkata. The portfolio consists of 18.7 million square feet comprising 14.3 million square feet of completed area, 0.6 million square feet under construction, and 3.9 million square feet with future development potential. In May, BIRET and GIC announced the acquisition of two assets in Mumbai and Gurugram with a built-up area

of 6.5 million square feet. These two assets are presently owned by Brookfield Asset Management's private real estate funds.

The two properties are Brookfield's Downtown Powai, which is a portfolio of nine commercial properties spread over three clusters with 2.7 million square feet of operational area, and 0.1 million square feet of area under expansion, and Candor Techspace in Gurugram, which has over 3.7 million square feet of operational space. 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. Rental income earned by REITs is distributed to unitholders.

REITs help unlock the massive value of real estate assets and enable the participation of retail investors. Out of four listed REITs on Indian bourses, three are backed by office assets and one by retail (shopping malls) real estate assets. Shares of Brookfield India Real Estate Trust REIT ended at Rs 264.00, down by Rs 1.21, or 0.46 percent on the BSE.