Ascendas India Trust (a-iTrust) has entered into a purchase agreement with the Casa Grande Group to acquire two industrial assets at Mahindra World City, Chennai.

The assets are known as Casa Grande – Phase 2, and it is being acquired in addition to the earlier acquisition announced in March 2021 for Casa Grande – Phase 1.

The acquisition of Casa Grande – Phase 1 was completed on 27 May 2022.

The Phase 2 Project consists of two industrial facilities with net leasable area totaling 0.31 million square feet.

“The full leasing of Casa Grande – Phase 1 validates our assessment of the demand for industrial assets in this location”, said Sanjeev Dasgupta, CEO of a-iTrust’s manager.

“The proposed Casa Grande – Phase 2 acquisition provides an opportunity to increase exposure to the industrial sector and expand our presence in Mahindra World City, a prime industrial corridor in Chennai”, he added.

a-iTrust proposes to fund the development of the Phase 2 project and subsequently acquire both facilities.

The construction of Casa Grande – Phase 2 is expected to be completed by the second half of 2023 and acquisition will be completed after a stabilisation period of 12 months for leasing.

As a result of the acquisition of Casa Grande – Phase 2, a-iTrust’s portfolio size will increase by 1.2% from approximately 25.0 million square feet to approximately 25.3 million square feet.

a-iTrust was last done on the Singapore Exchange at SGD1.14.

By Shariffa Al-Habshee

Shariffa joined REITsWeek in 2017, and monitors Asia-Pacific REITs for the publication.