2021 REIT Performance Outlook in Indian Real Estate

Gautam Mehra is a Partner with PwC India and leads the Tax and Regulatory practice for PwC India.Gautam joined PwC in September 2003 as a Partner, and since then has held various roles. Prior to taking over as the India Tax and Regulatory Leader in July 2015, he was leading the PwC Western India’s Tax and Regulatory Practice, the Financial Services’ Tax and Regulatory team and was also the Asset Management Sector leader for the firm in India. He has been working with multinational and domestic clients across a wide spectrum of tax and regulatory services, and has varied experience of nearly 30 years.

Mike Holland is the Chief Executive Officer of Embassy Office Parks, one of India's leading property developers which owns and manages over 25 million sq ft of commercial real estate space across Bangalore and Pune. Embassy has an office development pipeline in excess of 20 million sq ft including four new business park projects in Chennai and Hyderabad. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Building Surveying and a Master's degree in Property Development (Project Management) from Thames Polytechnic and South Bank University and is a fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He has over 25 years of experience in the commercial real estate sector in Asia, Europe and USA.

Vikram Garg is a Senior Managing Director and the Head of Real Estate Asset Management Asia at Blackstone. Based in Singapore, he is instrumental in driving the firm's real estate strategies across the region, with a significant focus on India. Mr. Garg joined Blackstone in 2014, leveraging his extensive background in pan-India real estate investments and asset management, honed at Religare, Deutsche Bank, and The Chatterjee Group. He has been a key figure in developing India's Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) market, notably contributing to the success of Embassy Office Parks REIT and Knowledge Realty Trust (KRT) REIT. His educational background includes an MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and he is a qualified accountant with an Honours Degree in Commerce from the University of Kolkata.

Equipped with an MBA from Booth School of Business, Chicago, and a law degree from the Mumbai University, Vinod began his career with the K. Raheja Corp, over two decades ago. A fine example of his work philosophy has resulted in building brand ‘Mindspace’ – with the idea of establishing world-class business districts; a concept which has completely revolutionized the Commercial Real Estate sector in India. Having led the development of Grade A commercial real estate across the country, and the listing of Mindspace Business Parks REIT on the Indian stock exchanges, his current focus is on driving the commercial business’ strategic operations with an emphasis on stakeholders’ management and business development.

Alok is CEO, India Office Businesses, Brookfield in India, which at present includes 16.8 MSF assets in five IT / ITES SEZ across NCR and Kolkata, Powai 4.2 MSF and Equinox with 1.25 MSF. In this role he is heading all aspects of the business including operations, construction and leasing of ~22.25 mn sq ft. Alok has over three decades of experience in deal sourcing, evaluation, closing & asset management across asset classes and has played principal role in investments across residential, commercial, warehousing & mixed-use developments. Prior to joining Brookfield, he has also worked with Milestone Capital Partners, wherein he spearheaded many funds with an investment of Rs 3000 cr in the real estate development, mezzanine and REIT