Blackstone teams up with Embassy Group for India's first REIT

India’s much-awaited maiden real estate investment trust (REIT) is set to debut almost four years after the rules were notified and efforts by the government over the past few years to put in place regulations on par with global standards. Embassy Office Parks, a joint venture of US private equity firm Blackstone Group and Embassy Group, is to file documents with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Monday, proposing to raise over Rs 5,000 crore through this route, said two people with knowledge of the development. Apart from being India’s first, the Blackstone-Embassy REIT will be Asia’s largest in terms of office portfolio area, more than twice the size of others in the continent. With this, India will join the league of global REIT markets such as the US, the UK, Singapore, Japan Australia and Canada. Embassy Office Parks will list 33 million square feet of office real estate portfolio under the REIT.