Project

Bhavnagar (population: 500,000), an emerging Tier III city in western India, is a diamond and shipping hub as well as an important trading post for cotton products. As a prominent regional educational centre, it is also home to a student population of approximately 45,000.

Despite high disposable incomes and growing consumption, Bhavnagar has not yet benefited from the development of organised retail centres, leaving the local population solely dependent on the traditional disorganised retail high street to meet their shopping requirements.

Yatra aims to fill this gap through its investment in Bhavnagar's first retail mall, a 570,000 square feet city centre development located close to the central business district. The location benefits from an immediate catchment of middle and upper income residential localities within a two kilometre radius. The Bhavnagar University is also located nearby.

Big Bazaar, a national hypermarket chain and Globus, a national department store brand are the anchor tenants. The shopping centre will also include other department stores, apparel and footwear outlets, cinema multiplex and a hotel.

Yatra's partner in the project is Modi Build-Well Limited, which is part of the Ahmedabad-based Himalaya Group. The group is an active developer of destination malls in cities across western India under the brand Himalaya Mall. Currently, the company is developing malls in several cities in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Key Highlights

• This investment marks Yatra's entry into the growing Tier III category cities and is in line with our strategy to create retail infrastructure in emerging markets.
• The location and size of the project will be a substantial entry barrier for potential competition.
• The project is largely risk mitigated by significant pre-leasing which has been already completed.