By M. Sriram
(Reuters) – Blackstone Inc. will sell its entire 23.59% stake valued at $833 million in India’s largest real estate investment trust Embassy Office Parks, four years after it was first listed, according to a term sheet seen by Reuters and a person with direct knowledge.
Blackstone will sell 223.6 million units of Embassy REITs, in one of the biggest block deals this year, at a 7.7% discount to 335.75 rupees per unit price as of Dec. 19, according to the term sheet. The units will be sold via block deals in the secondary market.
The deal marks Blackstone’s exit from India’s first ever listed REIT. The U.S. based investment manager has been trimming its interest over time in Indian REITs. In 2022, it sold its entire stake in India’s Mindspace Business Parks REIT for $235 million.
Blackstone has been reducing its stake in Embassy REIT progressively over the years. In September 2022, Blackstone sold $400 million in the REIT to investors including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Embassy Office Parks was India’s first REIT to list in 2019. It owns and operates more than 45.3 million square feet of office parks and office buildings in cities such as Bengaluru and Mumbai and is also the largest office REIT in Asia by area.
A spokesperson for Blackstone, and Bengaluru-based Embassy did not immediately respond to emails from Reuters seeking comment. Investment bankers to the deal Kotak Securities and IIFL Securities did not respond to request for comment.
(Writing by Dhwani Pandya; editing by David Evans)
