Aiming for the Stars

In the heart of India’s bustling financial landscape, private investment firm Everstone Group has carved a niche for itself, founding real estate arm IndoSpace in 2007 in response to growing demand for a new generation of industrial parks across the country.

Today, led by Rajesh Jaggi at an owner–partner level, with a portfolio of 51 parks spread across over 5.4 million square meters, IndoSpace has become the largest investor, developer and manager of light industrial and logistics parks across 11 cities in India.

With such a vast reach, the company leads the development of key logistics infrastructure that boosts India’s economic growth.

Jaggi is responsible for all real estate investments and operations of IndoSpace, and his impressive career trajectory is testament to his leadership skills.

A visionary leader with more than two decades of experience, Jaggi previously held a key role at Peninsula Land as Managing Director at the age of 35.

He says this has equipped him with invaluable insights and the ability to think creatively and strategically while remaining focused on solutions.

“I was moving from a developer to a private investment place,” he says. “What drew me here was looking at the business from the investor side, but also using my real estate skills.”

Everstone Group operates through four distinct verticals, each with its unique characteristics and aspirations. The first of these is IndoSpace, the real estate arm of Everstone Group and India’s largest developer and owner of Grade-A industrial real estate and logistics parks.

The second vertical is Everstone Capital, the private equity arm of Everstone Group. With seven offices globally, it focuses on the mid-market, growing investment opportunities, operations and strategic resources.

Then there is the third vertical, Eversource. This represents Everstone Group’s partnership with Lightsource, managing India’s largest climate impact fund.

Finally, the fourth vertical, EverYondr, is the result of a partnership between Everstone Group and Yondr Group, a data center owner–operator and service provider. EverYondr focuses on developing institutional-quality hyperscale data centers across India.

Acquiring Land

Jaggi reveals IndoSpace faced challenges when embarking on its groundbreaking journey in industrial and warehousing facilities in India. “When you look at real estate and IndoSpace, the challenge we have is land acquisition,” he says.

“Securing clear land in strategic locations and at favorable prices is the foundation of our business.  If I don’t have land, I can’t do development.”

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“Kirby, a market leader in the Indian pre-engineered steel buildings industry for 24+ years, has worked with IndoSpace for over a decade. In our commitment to execute IndoSpace’s projects par excellence we’ve built buildings over eight million square feet of area for them.” – P V Mohan, CEO, Kirby India

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Other challenges include construction quality, infrastructure and amenities. The Chakan Pune endeavor also highlighted the dearth of reputable vendors capable of meeting IndoSpace’s standards.

“In a warehouse, the flooring plays an important role because it has to be a very smooth surface that can take a lot of weight from the forklifts and the products,” Jaggi says. “At that time we actually had to get someone from Dubai who designed the floor for us and gave the specifications to a local vendor.

“It was a time of great learning, a time of struggle and it was a time of achievement.”

Walk the Talk

Jaggi says these early experiences were a steep learning curve, but also testament to the organization’s unwavering determination.

“To give anyone any sort of advice, your brand should stand for perfect excellence and execution, trust, and you must be able to walk the talk because that’s what makes you stand out from any other brand,” he says.

“We’ve created jobs, we’ve created companies, we’ve created vendors who can actually deliver Grade-A industrial and warehousing in India.”

As IndoSpace continues to scale to new heights, it is clear partnerships and supplier relationships remain a linchpin of their operational excellence.

Kirby Building Systems is one of those market-leading partners, producing steel buildings and structures in India and providing top-class customer service through its integrated enterprise resource-planning system.

“In every region, we chose four-to-five key vendors, key suppliers, key architects and formed a long-term relationship where they actually worked pretty much exclusively for us,” Jaggi explains. “We made them grow as a company by giving them the volume, and both of us then learned on the job to be successful.”

On IndoSpace’s future, Jaggi reveals: “Our aim is to deploy or invest between US$600 million to US$800 million in this business from our new fund.

“From an area perspective, what we want to do in the next three-to-five years is execute close to 30 million square feet [2.8 million square meters] and also venture into emerging markets, as we recognize significant potential in those areas.”

IndoSpace’s remarkable journey is characterized by a commitment to trust, innovation and partnership. As it continues to expand and evolve, guided by a visionary leader like Jaggi, the company is sure to inspire others in the pursuit of operational excellence and growth.