Brookfield India REIT and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC formed a partnership to acquire two large commercial assets totaling 6.5 million square feet from Brookfield Asset Management’s private real estate funds.

The acquisition includes commercial properties in Brookfield’s Downtown Powai in Mumbai and Candor TechSpace, Sector 48, in Gurugram, for a combined enterprise value of about $1.4 billion, Brookfield said in a stock exchange announcement.

“Growing and diversifying our India REIT portfolio via accretive transactions is part of our long-term strategy,” said Ankur Gupta, managing partner and head of real estate - APAC region at Brookfield. “We are excited about the addition of market leading properties and the meaningful increase in size of the REIT.”

The transaction will increase the gross asset value of Brookfield India Real Estate Trust to $3.5 billion and the net asset value to $2 billion, according to the statement. With a 35% increase in total leasable space and a 44% increase in operating area, the acquisition significantly scales the Brookfield India REIT portfolio, it said.

“This marks our first joint venture with a public REIT in India and will allow us to scale up our investments through this avenue,” Goh Chin Kiong, deputy chief investment officer of real estate at GIC, said.

Kishore Gotety, co-head of real estate, Asia ex-China, GIC, said the growth in the India office sector is likely to continue, driven by an established IT industry, increased focus by global corporations on digital adoption, and the availability of skilled talent.

Morgan Stanley acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Brookfield Asset Management and its funds. BofA Securities acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Brookfield India Real Estate Trust.

Khaitan & Co and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas represented Brookfield Asset Management and Brookfield India Real Estate Trust as their respective legal counsels.

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