Blackstone to list its office assets in REIT with Embassy

The Blackstone Group, the world’s largest real estate private equityfirm, is planning to list its own marquee income-producing commercial assets in India and office properties jointly owned with the Embassy Group under its Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The REIT, registered in 2017 as Embassy Office Parks, is sponsored by Blackstone and Bengaluru-based realty developer Embassy Property Developments. It is currently in the process of filing the draft red herring prospectus for the REIT. The Blackstone-Embassy alliance is expected to raise around $1 billion (Rs 6,850 crore) through this issue, which will be India’s maiden REIT. The papers are likely to be filed over the next couple of weeks. “Blackstone is adding a few of its own assets in Mumbai, the Delhi-National Capital Region and Pune to the portfolio, a part of which will be listed as a REIT,” said one of the people. “With a fundraising estimate of around $1 billion, the portfolio would value at over $5 billion.”