Warburg Pincus JV commits US$400m to build Indian malls

Mumbai real estate firm Runwal has entered into a partnership with private-equity business Warburg Pincus to build a US$1 billion Indian malls platform.

The partners are each contributing $200 million and have pledged to cooperate in securing the remaining funds, with a view to developing new malls across a range of cities in India – including large destination malls, small hypermarkets and community malls.

“Following Warburg Pincus’ successful partnerships in the retail mall space in China, Vietnam and Indonesia, with entities such as Red Star Macalline, Vincom Retail and NWP Retail, this investment represents the first mall platform which the firm has backed in India,” read a statement released by the firm.

“The retail real-estate sector is expected to see tremendous growth going forward driven by lack of community spaces in Indian cities and the growing disposable income resulting in greater spend on entertainment and branded retail,” said Runwal MD Sandeep Runwal. “We look forward to working closely with Warburg Pincus and leveraging their successful experience in helping create market leading platforms in the retail mall space in other parts of Asia.”

Runwal Group currently operates four malls in Mumbai covering about 2 million sqft in leasable space.

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