Investcorp joins Global Funds in betting on Indian warehouses

Investcorp joins Global Funds in betting on Indian warehouses

Workers walk past a conveyor belt during a so-called pink shift, consisting of just women, at a Flipkart Internet Pvt. warehouse in Koduvalli, Thiruvallur, in the outskirts of Chennai, India, on Wednesday. Sept. 22, 2021. Walmart-backed e-commerce giant Flipkart added 115,000 jobs this Diwali holiday sales season, up from 70,000 in 2020 and 50,000 in 2019. hotographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg



Investcorp Holdings BSC, the Middle East’s biggest alternative asset manager, is doubling down on warehouse investments in India, betting the nation’s manufacturing ambitions and e-commerce boom will fuel demand for logistics.

Warehousing currently accounts for almost 16% of the Bahrain-based firm’s $350 million real estate portfolio in India, and it’s planning to boost that share in the coming year, according to Ritesh Vohra, the firm’s real estate head in the nation.

“Warehouses could end up being our biggest strategy in Indian real estate,” he said in an interview.

Investcorp joins a flood of international capital investing in a sector that’s been buoyed by the government’s plan to transform India into a manufacturing hub, and a steady rise in online shopping on platforms such as Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart and Amazon.com Inc.

“Institutional capital is flowing in,” said Vohra. “Warehousing is where