CapitaLand, Xander in race for Blackstone’s Pune-based IT parks
Singapore’s CapitaLand Ltd and investment firm Xander Group Inc. are the front runners to acquire Pune-based IT parks, which is owned by US fund Blackstone Group, two people aware of the development said.
Blackstone has put its BlueRidge special economic zone (SEZ) and another IT SEZ in Hinjewadi area of Pune on sale, and hired Morgan Stanley to find a buyer.
The deal will be in the range of ₹2,000 crore, said the first person. Others who have joined in the race include Shapoorji PallonjiAllianz and Singapore-based investor-developer AscendasSingbridge. The 1.5-million-sq. ft BlueRidge special economic zone (SEZ) was acquired from private equity fund manager IDFC Alternatives in 2014, while the other SEZ — jointly developed by DLF and Hubtown (erstwhile Ackruti City)—was acquired by Blackstone for ₹810 crore in 2011.
CapitaLand, one of Asia’s largest real estate companies, owns and managed a global portfolio worth more than S$88 billion ($67 billion) as of 31 December 2017, comprising integrated developments, shopping malls, serviced residences, offices, homes, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and funds, according to the company website.
In India, CapitaLand operates seven serviced residence properties in Bengaluru, Gurugram, Chennai and Ahmedabad while it
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owns two malls in Jalandhar and Nagpur.
In January, CapitaLand had sold its stake in six malls across India to Bengaluru based developer Prestige Group for ₹324 crore. Prestige Group had acquired CapitaLand’s stake in SPVs it had formed between two parties. The malls are situated at Bengaluru, Mysore, Mangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi and Udaipur.
Similarly, Xander Group, which has invested around $2 billion in India’s real estate sector, has made multiple buyouts recently as part of expanding its commercial office portfolio in the country. It had bought an office building of around 250,000 sq. ft at Embassy Golf Links Business Park in Bengaluru for ₹350 crore last month.
In 2017, Xander group and Dutch pension fund asset manager APG Asset Management NV bought an information technology SEZ in south Chennai for around $350 million (₹2,250 crore) from Shriram Properties.