Ascendas to acquire two buildings for ₹1,400 crore
MUMBAI: Ascendas India Trust (a-itrust), which is part of Singapore’s Ascendas Singbridge, will acquire two upcoming commercial office buildings at avance Business hub in Hyderabad for up to ₹1,400 crore.
Ascendas Property Fund Trustee Pte. Ltd, the trustee-manager of a-itrust has entered into a forward purchase agreement with Phoenix Ventures Pvt. Ltd to acquire two buildings, A1 and A2, in avance Business Hub 2, located in HITEC City.
The combined leasable area of the two buildings stand at 1.85 million sq ft, the company said in a statement.
a-itrust, along with its affiliates, will provide construction funding by subscribing to debentures issued by Phoenix Ventures and its co-developer entities amounting to ₹795.8 crore.
“The company will complete the acquisition by purchasing 100% shares in the co-developer entities, once the required leasing criteria is met in the buildings. The purchase price will be determined in accordance with a pre-agreed formula, which takes into account key factors such as rent, occupancy and capitalisation rates,” a-itrust said.
Along with construction finance, the total purchase amount is not expected to exceed ₹1,400 crore.
In May, a-itrust had entered into a “master agreement” with Phoenix Ventures and its co-developers to acquire five out of the seven buildings at the 14.4-acre avance Business Hub.
“The proposed acquisition of avance A1 and A2 will allow us to further strengthen our presence in Hyderabad, which is currently witnessing robust rental growth arising from healthy demand from global IT companies,”said Sanjeev Das- gupta, chief executive officer, Trustee-manager.
While avance A1 has a leasable area of approximately 0.86 million sq. ft, avance A2’s leasable area is about 0.99 million sq. ft.
“Both buildings will be acquired individually when completed, subject to required leasing levels being met, among other conditions,” the company said.
a-itrust has already committed ₹1,350 crore to acquire two other commercial buildings avance 5 and 6 with a combined leasable area of 1.8 million sq ft. The company has been on an acquisition spree over the last few months.
On 15 May, the company also entered into a forward purchase agreement with Navi Mumbaibased builder Aurum Ventures to buy the two assets for ₹930 crore.
Located at Navi Mumbai, the two upcoming office buildings are spread over 1.4 million sq. ft.