Blackstone set to acquire South City Mall for 3.5k cr, city’s largest in real estate deal
Times of India | 7 March 2025
Kolkata: US investment giant Blackstone is in talks to purchase South City, eastern India's largest mall, for around Rs 3,500 crore, in what could be Kolkata's largest real estate deal.
The consortium of developers that promoted South City and the US private equity giant have not yet inked the deal formally, but sources close to the development said talks were at an "advanced stage". Due diligence is on, and it may take anything between a fortnight to two months to finalise, the the sources added.
The deal may also include a property developed by South City Projects in Sri Lanka.
This has been in the works for several months, with Blackstone keen to enter the Kolkata market. The company owns around 18 malls across 14 Indian cities but is yet to gain a toehold in Kolkata. It has also deployed Rs 1.7 lakh crore in office space and hotels in India. Worldwide, Blackstone manages assets worth Rs 9.6 lakh crore.
New York-based Blackstone Inc was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter G Peterson and Stephen A Schwarzman, who previously worked at Lehman Brothers. In India, it is also a sponsor of Nexus Select Trust, a real estate investment trust, which is the largest mall operator in the country.
South City generates an average annual turnover of around Rs 1,800 crore. Spread across 12.5 lakh square feet, the gross retail area of 6.5 lakh square feet houses around 150 stores, including anchors like Shoppers Stop, Pantaloons, Inox and Spencer's. Among international brands are Zara, Sephora and Marks & Spencer.
South City mall also has the largest food court in the region. The multi-storey parking lot can accommodate 1,250 cars at a time.
Inaugurated in January 2008, the mall was developed by a consortium of leading real estate players: Emami Group, Merlin Group, Park Chambers Group, Shrachi Group, Jugal Kishore Khetawat and Rajendra Kumar Bachhawat. Most of the mall was temporarily shut for around 18 months between April 2016 and Jan 2018 for a revamp.
It has had a daily average footfall ranging from 30,000-40,000 on weekdays and 75,000-1.5 lakh on weekends. The average monthly footfall is 16 lakh.
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