Mumbai - Global private equity major Blackstone Group is betting big on warehousing and logistics development in India owing to the rising consumption led by demographics, ecommerce penetration and supporting regulatory initiatives by the Government.

The institutional investor is looking to expand its warehousing portfolio in the country by 2.5 times to 100 million sq ft from current 40 million sq ft in the next 3-5 years.

Blackstone will be developing the logistics portfolio further through its existing joint ventures, partnerships and will also be forging new alliances for the same, said a top executive of the firm.

“India’s demographics and consumption pattern along with promising economic growth prospects certainly indicate a huge opportunity for logistics, warehousing, and industrial space. The Government’s holistic approach to transform the logistics sector will ensure solid growth potential,” Asheesh Mohta, senior MD and head of real estate acquisitions in India for Blackstone, said.

In April, Blackstone announced the final close of $30.4 billion for the largest ever real estate drawdown fund. A significant part of this fund is expected to flow into the logistics and data centres segment and geographically into Asia Pacific, especially India.

Blackstone has recently set up a separate India-dedicated platform, Horizon Industrial Parks, to house its 26 million sq ft logistics and warehousing assets and support its rapidly expanding logistics footprint across the country.

This platform is created through recent key acquisitions including Embassy Industrial Parks, TARC and Allcargo Logistics with over half a billion-dollar investments. The platform will act as the holding company for Blackstone’s all logistics and industrial parks-related assets and alliances.

The firm’s logistics portfolio across major Indian cities including Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Pune and Hyderabad is anchored by tenants in fast-growing sectors such as ecommerce, retail, auto and logistics.

Logistics is one of the biggest asset classes for Blackstone globally as it is the largest owner of warehousing spaces. It has so far invested over $55 billion in this segment and owns more than 575 million sq ft of warehousing space world over.