ALLIANZ TIES UP WITH SHAPOORJI FOR $500MN REALTY FUND

MUMBAI: Global insurance firm Allianz Group on Thursday announced that it has partnered with Shapoorji Pallonji Group to set up a $500 million real estate FUND—SPREF Ii—which will invest in commercial office properties in India.

The transaction, which marks the German firm’s first investment into real estate in India, was conducted by Allianz Real Estate, a $63.5 billion real estate investment and asset management firm within the group.

This deal forms part of Allianz’s strategy to allocate around 5% of its global real estate portfolio to the Asia Pacific region, the company said.

Allianz will own 50% of the platform, and the remaining will be held by long-term institutional investors. The fund plans to raise $500 million in equity. “India is strategic to the Allianz Group. In growth economies like China and India, real estate provides a scalable entry into the market for Allianz in terms of investments/asset management exposure,” said Francois Trausch, global CEO, Allianz Real Estate.

The fund plans to build a “long term, cash flow producing office portfolio by acquiring a blend of develop-to-core, forward purchases, and stabilized or stabilizing assets.”

The six target cities are Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, and Delhi-national Capital Region .

“We are looking to deploy approximately 60% of our AsiaPacific allocation to growth economies. The Indian economy has been consistently outperforming,” said Rushabh Desai, AsiaPacific, chief executive officer (CEO), Allianz Real Estate.