APG commits $175m to India retail JV

The company will use the new capital to expand its existing investment capacity and position itself for future growth. Currently, it manages four retail assets totaling about 5.5 million square feet in Bangalore, Surat, Chandigarh, and Chennai. It plans to add retail centers in other key markets such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata.

Xander focuses on the real estate, retail, infrastructure, hospitality and credit sectors in emerging markets. The firm has committed more than $2.7 billion in equity capital to the Indian market since 2005 across public, private, credit and venture investments.

Xander founded Virtuous Retail, VRSA’s predecessor, as its India real estate investment arm in 2007. It made several investments in the platform, including a $600 million commitment in 2012, before bringing in APG as joint owner last year. APG and Xander invested $450 million to the rebranded VRSA in November 2016, at which point the company had three retail assets. It added the fourth earlier this year through an INR7 billion ($108 million) transaction.

VRSA builds and operates retail, lifestyle and community centers aimed at taking advantage of India’s growing retail market and increasingly quality-focused middle-class consumers. It manages assets across the value chain of development, ownership, and operations.

“We have been impressed with VRSA’s performance and the management team’s ability to develop new projects, continuously enhance existing ones, and acquire new assets in a highly competitive environment,” said Patrick Kanders, managing director and global head of real assets for APG, in a statement. “We are looking forward to the coming years as VRSA’s best-in-class management team executes on the strategic plan.”

VRSA is one of several platforms that APG has co-founded in Asia with local partners. Previous efforts include a $1 billion infrastructure JV with India’s Piramal Enterprises founded in 2014 and a logistics-focused platform in South Korea with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Chinese warehousing operator ESR.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• Real estate
• Expansion
• India
• APG
• Growth capital