Warburg\, Runwal create $1-billion JV for realty play

Mumbai: In one of India’s biggest transactions to help build a property investment platform, private equity major Warburg Pincus has entered into a $1-billion alliance with developer Runwal Group to fund retail-led mixed-use projects across the country. ET was the first to report on the platform’s establishment on November 22.

Both partners, an affiliate of Warburg Pincus and Runwal, will commit $200 million each in the form of equity and will also raise additional $600 million of debt to create a total corpus of $1 billion. The platform will invest in and develop prime shopping malls across tiers 1, 2, and 3 cities in India, locations that have sizeable populations and increasing disposable incomes.

An affiliate of Warburg Pincus and Runwal Developers will each hold 50%. The platform will look to build large destination malls and smaller hypermarket and cinema anchored community malls.