Blackstone buys majority state in planned Bhubaneswar Mall

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jan 19, 2018

The global private equity firm Blackstone has bought a 75 percent stake in Esplanade Mall in Bhubaneswar which is currently being developed by Forum Group.

Forum Group is in the process of investing 1,400 crore rupees (approximately 210.4 million US dollars) to develop three million square feet of retail space in Eastern India. The group has set aside 500 crore rupees (approximately 75.1 US dollars) for the Esplanade Mall in Bhubaneswar.

According to Business Standard reports, the international firm Blackstone invested around 250 crore rupees (approximately 37.5 million dollars) to acquire a 75 percent stake in the development that will house 150 retailers including fashion retailers. The mall will be spread over 0.9 million square feet with a built up space of 450,000 square feet making it a huge retail development for the region.

“We will be delivering roughly one million square feet of retail infrastructure development every year for the next three years,” said Vidyut Saraf, Forum Group’s Deputy Manager. “We expect the joint platform with Blackstone will acquire more such properties in the future.” Despite the explosion of online fashion retail in India, malls are still going strong, with many hosting live events and sales to lure customers to a brick and mortar location. In this climate, Forum Group is banking on the continued success of malls in India.