Eredene invests in India

Eredene, set up three years ago to invest in infrastructure projects and real estate development in India, is focusing mainly on the logistics, distribution, warehousing and port services sector. Most recently, it announced that it was investing up to £11m in a £26m project to build and operate three multi-user logistics centres in a “hub and spoke” model in northern India.The development will provide 1.35m sq ft of automated racked warehousing on three sites – the “hub” located south of Delhi, and the “spokes” being in the states of Uttaranchal and Punjab.

Eredene has also invested £850,000 in a 49% stake in a joint venture with Sattva Group to develop and operate a container freight station at Vichoor, to serve the ports of Chennai (where DP World owns and operates a container terminal) and Ennore (where a container terminal is being built) in southern India.

Close to the Maersk-operated port of Pipavav, in the south of Gujarat, Eredene has invested £3m in a 40% stake in Box-Trans Logistics, a container freight station now under construction.

The company also has a 50% stake in a joint venture with shipowning group Apeejay Surrendra to develop a 72-acre logistics park 7 kms from the port of Haldia in West Bengal.

Having established itself in hinterland support ventures, Eredene is now in negotiations to invest in the ports sector itself and is particularly interested in working with the smaller ports, said Mr King.