Blackstone, Indiabulls plan commercial real estate platform

Barely three months after striking a joint venture, has private equity (PE) firm Blackstone Group Lp and Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd (IBREL) planned to develop it into a commercial properties platform with rent-yielding assets. The plan is to add six office assets on the platform within the next three to six months, of which three will be jointly acquired and the remaining would comprise projects already being developed by IBREL. In March, Blackstone had bought a 50% stake in IBREL’s office properties, One Indiabulls and Indiabulls Finance Center, in central Mumbai for $730 million (? 4,750 crore). IBREL will not pursue its earlier plan to carve out a separate entity for its commercial office business, given its new partnership with Blackstone. In 2017, the company’s board had decided to create a new vertical to house the two businesses, where the residential business would continue to remain with IBREL and the new entity—Indiabulls Commercial Assets Ltd (IBCAL)—would hold existing leasing and commercial assets, as well as future projects.