Author Archives: Rachna Ranjan

Burman GSC buys back Ascendas stake in Gurgaon IT SEZ for Rs 300 crore

Burman GSC, a joint venture between the Burman Group, promoters of home-grown FMCG company Dabur, and real estate private equity fund Golden State Capital (GSC), has bought out Ascendas India’s 51% stake in SEZ OneHub, located in Gurgaon, in a deal valued at around Rs 300 crore.

Sources told TOI that Ascendas wanted to exit the project and Burman GSC saw it as an opportunity to grow its presence in the commercial real estate space through a project where 6 lakh square feet is already completed. Now, Burman GSC plans to develop it independently. Burman GSC and Singapore-based IT park specialist Ascendas had a 49:51 joint venture for the project, which is spread across 63 acres on Sohna Road. The buyback was funded by promoter equity.

Read more: Economic Times

Investments in Gurgaon double to over $1 billion

Investors across real estate segments — residential, commercial and land – are rushing into Gurgaon which saw large sales across financing and land acquisitions in excess of $1billion, double that of 2015. Last year, Gurgaon market attracted around $500 million in investments as investors were in a wait-and- watch mode towards outlook and an expected recovery. Land accounted for 42.55 of the total investment pie, followed by residential assets at 42.1%, though a bulk of it is through refinance, and core assets or rented office property bringing up the rear at 15.3% estimates CBRE South Asia.

Read more: Economic Times

PE investment in real estate up 22% at Rs 28,000 crore in Jan-Sept

Private equity (PE) investments in the real estate sector increased by 22 per cent to Rs 28,300 crore in the first nine months of this year with investors’ rising interest in the office and retail assets, says property consultant.

In its latest report on Private Equity investments in Real Estate (PERE), C&W said that “the year to date (till September 30) inflows in 2016 increased 22 per cent to Rs 28,300 crore billion (USD 4.24 billion), up from Rs 23,200 (USD 3.6 billion) recorded during the same period last year”.

Read more: Economic Times

Saudi bourse says to list multiple real estate funds before year-end

Saudi Arabia’s stock market on Tuesday said it plans to list “multiple” exchange-listed real estate funds before the end of the year. The Tadawul’s statement follows regulations passed by the Capital Market Authority last month which paved the way for “real estate investment traded funds”.

These would invest in residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural real estate, periodically distributing part of their income to holders of the fund.

The Tadawul will create an independent sector for these instruments, “where investors may buy and sell units of the fund via the same mechanism currently used for equities”, it said in Tuesday’s bourse statement.

Source: Economic Times

Office space transaction in Kolkata fails to pick up in Q3

At just over 0.09 million sq ft, overall transaction volume in office space was unable to pick up in Kolkata this quarter as well said a recent report. Lease activity was driven by assortment of industries including Technology firms which shared about 33% of the absorption pie while, Engineering firms came in next at 25% share. FMCG and Pharmaceutical sectors both contributed 11% to the transaction volumes. Bulk of the leasing volumes was concluded in Sector V due to availability of large floor plates. A number of tenants whose leases were about to end were looking to benefit from affordable rents and high availability of good quality office space in peripheral area.

Read more: Economic Times

Snapdeal to cut costs, opts for co-working hubs

Ecommerce major Snapdeal is rationalizing its offices and is moving into co-working hubs instead of operating from leased offices in an effort to trim costs. The company has vacated its office with 200-seat capacity in Mumbai’s Malad suburb and picked up a 90-seat office in a co-working hub in Andheri, said three persons familiar with the development. The company has picked up an entire floor in co-working space provider Awfis Space Solution’s hub in Andheri (west) that has a total capacity of 255 seats.

The move is expected to help the Softbank-backed company ease its cost incurred for this specific centre by 10%. “Apart from reduction in cost burden, flexibility to expand and cut space requirement as per business demand has led to the decision to move into a co-working space. Conventional office lease may not support that kind of flexibility,” said one of the persons mentioned above.

Read more: Economic Times

9.6 mn sq ft Grade A office space absorbed in Q3

Nearly 9.6 million sq ft Grade A office space was absorbed during the July-September quarter of this year, a report said. According to a study of nine major metros by property consultant, office absorption witnessed sustained momentum, with Grade A absorption totalling 9.6 million sq ft, making it 28.26 million sq ft so far in 2016. “Although Q3 2016 marked a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 7.6 per cent in gross leasing volume, we expect leasing activity to pick up in the upcoming quarters,” it added.

As per the survey, southern cities dominated the office absorption pie with Bengaluru at the top (25 per cent), Hyderabad (20 per cent) and Chennai (11 per cent), followed by Gurugram (13 per cent), Mumbai and Noida (10 per cent), Pune (8 per cent), Delhi (2 per cent) and Kolkata (1 per cent).

Read more: Economic Times

IT firms hit by lack of office space in Hyderabad

The capital region of Andhra Pradesh is faced with severe shortage of office accommodation. As many as 40 corporate houses and IT companies have been unsuccessfully scouting for office accommodation for the last one year in Vijayawada and surrounding areas. Even Visakhapatnam city does not have sufficient space to house private offices. About 30 IT companies owned by people of Andhra origin approached the AP government a year ago expressing their willingness to launch operations in the capital region. “We are coordinating with local real estate dealers and the state government on office accommodation.

Read more: Economic Times 

Infra sector growth at 3-month high of 5% in September

Infrastructure sector recorded a growth rate of 5 per cent in September, the highest in three months, on account of healthy performance by cement, steel and refinery products. The growth rate of the eight infrastructure sectors, coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilizers, steel, cement and electricity, in September 2015 was 3.7 per cent.
The core sectors, which contribute 38 per cent to the total industrial production, had expanded by 3.2 per cent in August. As per the official data released on Monday, the cumulative growth of the sector during April-September period of the fiscal was 4.6 per cent against 2.6 per cent in the same period last fiscal.

Read more: Economic Times

UBS to lease 4 lakh sq ft office space in K Raheja’s Navi Mumbai SEZ

Swiss bank UBS has entered into an agreement to pick up 4 lakh sq ft of office space on lease at realty developer K Raheja Corp’s IT Special Economic Zone Gigaplex at Airoli in Navi Mumbai in one of the largest occupier lease transactions, three persons familiar with the development said. The Zurich-headquartered, NYSE-listed multinational bank is planning to utilise the space to develop its global service center hub here. This will be the first instance of an international bank setting up its service center in Navi Mumbai. Currently, three large domestic banks including State Bank of India and Axis Bank already have their back office units in Mumbai’s satellite city.

Read more: Economic Times