The fund, a SEBI-registered Category II AIF, is India’s first warehousing fund that provides domestic institutions, HNIs, family offices and NRIs, an opportunity to invest in the booming warehousing and industrial real estate sector in India. The sector, poised at an inflection point of growth, has exhibited significant interest from blue-chip investors globally and in India. Warehousing has been one of the few sectors to have demonstrated resilience and continued growth, despite the economic headwinds due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The fund is managed by an in-house team of over 30 professionals with deep local and institutional expertise in investment, development and asset management. The fund has a target size of `500 crore with a tenure of 4 years and a hurdle rate of 15%. It has a significant commitment from the Welspun promoter family office of `75 crore. The investment thesis of the fund is to acquire land parcels in high demand, pre-identified markets, and develop Grade-A warehousing parks, which will be leased on a long-term basis to ‘AAA’ credit tenants from sectors such as e-commerce, FMCG, third-party logistics (3PLs), pharma and auto-ancillaries. On completion, these assets would be divested to institutional investors including private equity, pension and sovereign funds, REITs, etc. so as to provide an exit and deliver the targeted returns to the fund investors.



Commented Nitin Jain, CEO, Edelweiss Wealth Management, “One of the big shifts of this 2030 decade would be the growth that India shall witness in infrastructure, especially in logistics, across the country - mainly due to favourable government policies, consolidation, e-commerce and largely the market getting organised. The total penetration of warehouses in India is less than 0.1 sq. ft. per capita, and the sector is expected to grow in excess of 20% CAGR. Welspun One’s AIF is a first of its kind, which has been launched to leverage the large opportunity in the sector, with an inherent strategy to mitigate due risks while giving stable long-term returns to investors. We are happy to partner with them and believe that this is an opportunity for our customers to participate in the development of the Indian warehousing sector by investing in this fund.”