CapitaLand Investment Ltd (CLI) – the Singapore-headquartered global asset management firm – is doubling down on its investments in India. CLI that has been investing in the country for three decades, will be investing over US$ 5 billion or close to Rs 45,000 crore over the next three and half years in the burgeoning real estate market.
Starting in 1994, CapitaLand has Singapore $7.4 billion, which is equivalent to some Rs 45,900 crore, worth of funds under management (FUM). To capture the rapidly growing sectors in India like data centres and logistics hubs, CIL has now set an ambitious target of doubling the amount of its FUM in India by 2028, a top CIL executive tells Business Today.
According to Andrew Lim, Group Chief Operating Officer, CIL, it is rising demand for data centres and state-of-the-art warehousing in India over the past few years are its key focus areas. “The aim is to grow our investments in India faster and double it by 2028,” he says.
The move is part of its global target of achieving S$ 200 billion worth of FUM by 2028. CapitaLand currently has some S$ 100 billion FUM now.
The country’s economy has digitised rapidly over the last 8 years. Moreover, newer technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) is at the center of attention for many leading sectors that are fast adopting it. Developments like these has increased the demand for data centres, which now CLI plans to capitalise.
Additionally, areas like warehousing and logistics is scaling with rising e-tail activities. These, according to Lim, have major growth potential – turning them attractive for investors.
CLI has already in process to invest over a billion dollars in a data centre project in Navi Mumbai. To make it environmentally sustainable, it’s plan involves linking the project with renewable energy generation like solar power plant.
Currently, the asset manager’s portfolio in India is highly skewed towards business parks. Starting with its investments in business parks, CapitaLand’s 90% investments in India are in the segment. That, however, will change soon as it diversifies its portfolio, says Sanjeev Dasgupta, Chief Executive Officer of CapitaLand Investment India. According to him, after these new sets of investments share of business parks in its India portfolio likely to comedown to 60-65%.
