Welspun One, an integrated fund and development management platform launched India’s first warehousing fund in 2021. The SEBI regulated Category II Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) provided investors an opportunity to participate in the warehousing sector across the asset creation cycle right from the land buying stage and through the leasing, development and exit of the asset with a potential to earn attractive returns. Two years later, Welspun One continues to add to its list of ‘firsts’ with the launch of its Investor portal, a first of its kind initiative in the Indian private equity space which sets the gold standard for investor reporting and transparency.
The investor portal is a web-based service which an investor can access using a PAN number and OTP based login. Once logged in, the portal provides the investor with relevant information with regard to his investment all in one place, anytime and at the click of a button. The portal is organized in to two key sections- a document repository and the investment and portfolio dashboard.
The document repository provides the investor with a repository of all investment documents including the private placement memorandum, copies of executed on-boarding documents and contribution agreement, historical and current statements of account, tax statements, quarterly investor reports, etc.
The investment and portfolio dashboard provides a summary of the investment and the underlying assets. The investment summary provides information on the investment amount committed by the investor, amounts drawn down to date, next drawdown date and amount and current value of the investment. The portfolio dashboard provides details of the underlying portfolio assets including a break-down of the investment amount by asset and total square footage of the portfolio broken down by asset, development and leasing status. In addition, the investor can also look at granular information on each asset including progress of construction and leasing complete with photos and drone videos of the site to monitor physical site progress.
The investor portal is a step to address one of the key challenges which investors face in the Indian private equity segment- the perception that these funds are ‘black boxes’ where the investor does not have enough visibility on the performance of the investment through the life of the fund.
Anshul Singhal, Managing director, Welspun One said, “As a Fund Manager, our fiduciary duty to our investors is paramount and ensuring that our investors have seamless and transparent access to investment performance information is an important component of this. This initiative is also an extension of the Welspun Groups ethos of customer centricity and strong emphasis on being a market leader in ESG practices across each of its businesses.”
Welspun One Logistics Parks Fund 1 has committed 100 per cent of its Rs 500 crore corpus across six investments spanning five cities which include the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, National Capital Region, Bengaluru, Chennai and Lucknow, aggregating to about 6.6 million square feet of gross leasable area. The Company is on track to deliver approx. 50% of this portfolio by 1QFY24, with the rest being delivered over the next 2-3 years. In addition to its Fund 1 assets, the Company has an active pipeline of approx. 600 acres of land that enables further development of 12-13 million sq. ft. of Grade A warehousing space. Accordingly, over the next 4-5 years, the company plans to develop a portfolio of 20 -25 million sq ft across first mile and last mile facilities across Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities pan India.
