Brookfield to buy 51% stake in four Bharti Enterprises assets

A real estate fund of Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management will buy a 51% stake in Bharti Enterprises’s four commercial properties—Worldmark Aerocity (Delhi), Worldmark 65 and Airtel Center (Gurugram) and Pavillion Mall (Ludhiana) —at an enterprise value of ₹5,000 crore.

As part of the joint venture agreement, Bharti Enterprises, which operates in the telecom, insurance, hospitality and food space, will retain 49% economic interest in these properties.

The rise in the number of deals in the commercial real estate segment reflects investors’ views that remote work and other such arrangements brought on by the pandemic are temporary, and companies will insist employees return to offices in the coming months. Brookfield’s real estate operating arm, Brookfield Properties, will manage the four properties across 3.3 million sq. ft. The transaction will be completed once regulatory approvals are received.

Worldmark Aerocity is a mixed-use property of 1.43 million sq. ft with a tenant roster comprising financial services firms, global conglomerates and government undertakings. Airtel Center is a 700,000 sq. ft corporate facility in North Gurugram, and Worldmark 65 is another 700,000 sq. ft newly built mixedmonths use asset in South Gurugram.

“We are very pleased with this partnership with Bharti and look forward to furthering the positioning of these premium assets. Today, tenants have a heightened appreciation of the positive impact workspaces can have on employee well-being, and we see tremendous opportunities for well managed commercial real estate due to this transformation,” said Ankur Gupta, managing partner, country head - India, Brookfield.

“We remain confident in commercial realty segment as India’s economy offers exciting growth opportunities ahead and will continue to invest to scale up our assets,” said Harjeet Kohli, group director, Bharti Enterprises.