The platform, which owns several malls, is India’s first retail assets-led REIT. It is looking to add new properties spread around 1.5 million sq ft to its portfolio every year for the next three to five years, said Arjun Sharma, vice chairman at Nexus Select Mall Management.
The trust will invest 2% of revenue every year to refurbish its malls, he said.
Sharma, who was the promoter of Select City Walk mall in Delhi, said he decided to become a partner in the REIT as the group was looking to expand the portfolio for a while.
“And we realised that we had certain limitations in terms of the ability to grow this platform. We were one mall in one city and wanted to diversify. And by participating in this platform, though we will be a minority shareholder, but across 17 malls and hopefully we’ll have the opportunity to grow this platform in the years to come,” said Sharma.
Nexus Select Trust, the country’s largest mall platform, currently has 17 assets in 14 cities, including Delhi, Navi Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad.
Sharma said as the economy was growing about 6.5%, modern retail should grow faster than that.”I think people will have that excess cash available to them once the home loan rate starts coming down. Corporate India results have been fairly decent, which means, people will give good increments this year. Rural economy has also shown some good signs. There could be a little bit of a stress at the bottom end, which is certainly visible but that is not our market,” Sharma said.
Malls have seen recovery in April. Nexus, he said, sees a good opportunity in organised retail.
“Organised retail is only about 13% of the total retail portfolio of the country. There is a great opportunity to build more malls in this country. All brands are in that growth phase, where they are looking for space. Additionally, there have been a lot of requests from international brands that are wanting to test the waters,” said Sharma.
Nexus Select Trust is looking to raise ₹3,200 crore through its initial public offering that is scheduled to open on May 9 and close on May 11. The price band for the offer has been fixed at ₹95-100 per unit.
