India: Mindspace REITs $601m IPO Subscribed 13 Times

According to stock exchange data, the portion of the share sale reserved for institutional investors was subscribed 10.65 times and that for other investors was subscribed 15.83 times.

Price range for Mindspace Business Parks REIT IPO was set at ₹274-275 per share.

Investment banks Morgan Stanley, Axis Capital, Bank of America, UBS, Nomura, IDFC Securities, among others, advised Mindspace REIT on the IPO.

The IPO witnessed investments from various foreign and domestic institutional investors including names such as Singapore state investor GIC, Fidelity, Capital Group and Fullerton.

According to Mr. Sharad Mittal, CEO, Motilal Oswal Real Estate Fund said “The oversubscription of the Mindspace REIT IPO demonstrates that a) there is a demand for a product like REITs to be a part of investor portfolios and b) commercial real estate continues to have the strong backing of both HNIs and institutions.”

Mittal added that this is contrary to the popular belief that rental assets will be severely impacted due to new norms such as Work From Home (WFH) which have evolved during the covid-19 pandemic. “The success of this IPO shall also bode well for future investments in the sector which have dried up post the spread of the COVID pandemic,” he added.

Mindspace is only the second REIT to go public in the Indian markets. In April 2019, Embassy Office Parks was the first REIT to be listed on the bourses.

“The over subscription of the MindSpace REIT is a very encouraging sign for the real estate sector at large and specially for the commercial segment. This positive response to the REIT will help build further confidence amongst global investors and attract them for long term commitment to the market,” said Shishir Baijal, chairman and managing director at Knight Frank India.

Mindspace Business Parks REIT has a portfolio of 29.5 million sq. ft of commercial properties located across major cities, such as Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad, out of which around 24.5 million sq. ft area has been constructed.

The article was first published on livemint.com