Blackstone in talks with Singh brothers, Dhillon family to acquire realty assets

Global private equity major Blackstone Group is in advanced talks with Ranbaxy’s Singh brothers and Dhillon family to acquire their real estate portfolio spread over 1 million sq ft office properties for over Rs 1,000 crore, said two persons familiar with the development.
The portfolio includes total six commercial buildings across four key cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Noida and Ahmedabad. Singh brothers are also developing a large 1million sq ft office complex in Gurgaon, but this project may not be part of the proposed transaction.

“The deal is likely to be concluded in few weeks from now as the due diligence, which is in advanced stage, is expected to close any time soon. Given their recent liquidity issues, the proposed deal is expected to provide much-needed relief to the Singh brothers,” said one of the persons mentioned above.

Blackstone is acquiring these assets on its own and not through any of its existing joint investment platforms with Indian real estate developers. The New York-headquartered private equity firm is negotiating the deal directly with Singh brothers and Dhillon family.


"Out of these assets, the commercial property spread over 2.50 lakh sq ft at Saket in New Delhi is expected to fetch maximum valuation given the size, location and marquee tenants. Law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, IIFL Wealth and retailer H&M are some of the occupiers in this prime property.

A total of 3 office buildings in Noida are spread over around 4.5 lakh sq ft, and are 70% fully leased. Commercial property spread over nearly 1lakh sq ft in Mumbai’s Vile Parle suburb is also fully occupied, while the property in Ahmedabad is relatively smaller in size.

Blackstone declined to comment on the story, while an email sent to RHC Holding, owned by Malvinder Mohan Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, remained unanswered till the time of going to press.

Over the past few years, Blackstone has emerged as the most aggressive institutional investor in India’s real estate sector, picking up properties across major cities in deals that are turning out to be benchmarks in the sector. The firm owns India’s biggest portfolio of income-producing office assets, totaling over 110 million sq ft across key property markets of Mumbai, Noida, Pune and Bengaluru.