Capital Land Target to More Than Double India Funds Under Management by 2028

                Singapore property giant, CapitaLand 
Investment, plans to more than double its 
Indian funds under management (FUM) from 
its current levels  around Rs 46,000 crore, by 
2028, and 
also plans to expand its play into data centres, 
logistics and industrial parks, and renewable 
energy. CapitaLand, owned by Singapore's 
sovereign wealth fund Temasek, is also 
readying to enter the private credit business for 
real estate, especially in early-stage financing 
for various projects.
CapitaLand Investment usually directs its 
Indian investments either through affiliated 
funds, or through the CapitaLand India Trust, a 
real estate investment trust listed in the 
Singapore 
Exchange. CapitaLand first entered India 
through the International Tech Park in 
Whitefield, Bengaluru, and has gone on to 
establish large office campuses across various 
cities, 
totalling 23.5 million square feet, as well as 
entering the hotels business through 
CapitaLand's Ascott vertical.
Sanjeev Dasgupta, CapitaLand Investment's 
India Chief Executive Officer, said that 
significant capital expenditure has been 
earmarked for data centre projects, the first 
ones are 
expected to be operational from next year, with 
other data centres being planned in Mumbai, 
Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai.
"Four data centres are under development, with 
a capital expenditure of 1.5 billion Singapore 
dollars. The first ones are expected to be 
operational in Mumbai and Hyderabad in the 
middle of next year. We are also planning a 
data centre in Kolkata in a partnership, in order 
to take advantage of the planned cable landing 
station in the state. We are seeing a wide 
range of interested parties, including global 
investors, for data centres," Dasgupta told 
Moneycontrol on the sidelines of an event.
Dasgupta said that around half the Indian 
investments are expected to be routed through 
the real estate investment trust, while the rest 
are slated to be routed through CapitaLand's 
affiliated funds.
As for the proposed entry into the private credit 
business for real estate, Dasgupta said that 
CapitaLand Investment has been monitoring 
the vertical for "quite a while", although the 
initial deployment may be a modest 200-250 
million Singapore dollars.
Private equity players have made a beeline in 
recent years to invest in real estate projects in 
India, either at a company level or a platform 
level, with such funding being crucial for 
developers in buying land or securing 
approvals. This form of funding is also popular 
with investment firms, especially those 
managing sovereign wealth, pensions, or 
private wealth, 
as they offer relatively quick exits with healthy 
rates of return. Property consultancy JLL has 
estimated construction finance in Indian real 
estate to be a $170 billion opportunity over 
the next two years.
CapitaLand Investment's interest in renewable 
energy is largely linked to its growing portfolio 
in data centres, an asset class that is 
becoming a major consumer of power globally, 
to 
the concerns of some, especially if the sources 
of power are from non-sustainable sources 
such as coal or gas, known as "brown" power. 
The company has set up a 21 MW captive 
solar power plant in Tamil Nadu.
Andrew Lim, group Chief Operating Officer of 
CapitaLand Investment, said that with some 
countries imposing moratoriums on building 
new data centres, India's role as a data centre 
hub is emergent, with more investors willing to 
bet their money in the country.
"There has been a change in relative 
allocations to India. Capital market players are 
now willing to invest in India and diversify their 
portfolio. Data centres are a fundamentally 
local 
business, and have become important due to 
the increasing trend of nationalisation of data, 
with local power infrastructure also being 
important. Due to data centres consuming 
large 
amounts of power, it is important to undertake 
initiatives such as solar power and renewables, 
as no sustainability-minded investor would 
want anything to do with a sector that 
consumes large amounts of brown, dirty 
power," Lim told Moneycontrol.
For its offices business, Dasgupta said that the 
company has a land bank for around 16 million 
square foot of office space in India, which is 
expected to be developed across 
Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, and Bengaluru. He 
added that the projects are expected in a mix 
of greenfield and brownfield developments, in 
order to reach previously untapped micro-
markets in cities that the company is already 
present in.

Source : Money Control