Blackstone in talks with GIC to sell stake worth $1.5-2 billion in realty JV projects.

Blackstone is in talks with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, to sell its 50 per cent stake in some of its commercial assets that it has with the Panchshil Group in Pune and with Salarpuria Sattva group in Hyderabad, three sources said.

The projects with 26 million square feet of leasable area have an enterprise value of $4 billion, and the deal could be somewhere around $1.5-2 billion sources indicated, depending upon the negotiations. The deal is still in the works and a lot will depend on the valuations and the final pricing, one of the sources indicated.

Of the total space, around 5 msf is under construction.

Panchshil’ s projects that are part of the deal are Eon Free Zone, Tech Park One, and ICC Tech Park, which also includes JW Marriott’s 415-key hotel and Pavilion Mall. The joint venture was formed in 2014. The projects in Hyderabad under the block that Blackstone has with the Salarpuria group are Knowledge City, Knowledge Capital, and Knowledge Park and the JV has been in effect since 2017.

There are other projects that Blackstone is developing and owns with the two real estate groups, and those are not part of the deal with GIC. Sources also made it clear that it was not exiting the joint ventures but selling its stake in some of the projects. There were also indications that while GIC was the frontrunner, there could be some others interested in the projects as well.

HBL