Embassy Office Parks REIT raises Rs 3,000 crore via debentures

Embassy Office Parks REIT, India's first listed real estate investment trust, has raised Rs 3,000 crore through private placement of debentures mainly to repay debt.

Embassy Office Parks, a joint venture between global investment firm Blackstone and realty firm Embassy Group, is a leading developer of commercial real estate. It launched the country's first real estate investment trust (REIT) to raise Rs 4,750 crore.

In a statement, the company said "it has successfully priced and allotted by way of a private placement Rs 30 billion of rupee-denominated, listed, rated, secured, redeemable and non-convertible debentures (NCDs)."

The NCDs will be listed on the Wholesale Debt Market segment of the BSE.

The debentures, EMBASSY REIT Series I NCD 2019, carry a face value of Rs 1,000,000 with yield to maturity of 9.4 per cent and will mature in June 2022.

Embassy REIT intends to use the proceeds from the issue to repay its existing debt and for general corporate purposes, it added.

On April 23, 2019, the Debenture Committee of the board had approved the issue of debentures aggregating Rs 3,650 crore in two tranches.

The panel on May 3 approved the allotment of the Tranche A debentures aggregating Rs 3,000 crore.

Embassy REIT owns and operates a 33 million square feet (msf) portfolio of seven Grade A office parks and four city-centre office buildings in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune and the National Capital Region (NCR).

The portfolio also comprises strategic amenities, comprising two completed hotels, two under-construction hotels and a 100 MW solar park supplying renewable energy to park tenants.