Ascendas India Trust, part of Asia's largest IT space developer group, is planning to venture outside its investments in south India, and is eyeing opportunities in Mumbai and Pune to exploit new growth areas, the trust told its shareholders recently.
In fact, two projects have already been firmed up in Pune, and investments would be made in the current year.
The company has so far restricted itself to Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore.
This skewness in its investment portfolio in terms of its geographical reach would change with Ascendas Trust now looking at cities like Mumbai and Pune in the west and Delhi and Gurgaon in the north.
"In Pune, our sponsor Ascendas-Singbridge Group has provided the Trust with a right to first refusal to acquire International Tech Park Pune, an SEZ under development with a total floor area of 2.3 million square feet. In addition, we will be acquiring a property named BlueRidge 2 with over 1.5 million sqft of floor area in Pune. We expect to complete this acquisition by December 2016," chairman Philip Yeo has said.
The current properties of the trust, the first such India-focused listed realty fund, include CyberPearl, aVance Business Hub and the V in Hyderabad; International Tech Park and CyberVale in Chennai and International Tech Park in Bangalore. The aggregate floor area is 9 million sqft, valued at Rs 5,576 crore and houses 297 tenants. Of this, 3.92 million sqft was acquired in the previous financial year and another 3.02 million sqft is under development phase in these three cities.
Bangalore remains Ascendas India Trust's major anchor with 38% of existing assets and 74% of the upcoming portfolio is based in the IT-capital, the presentation made by the company to its shareholders at the annual general meeting mentioned.
Before making the investment, Ascendas would be looking at "clean land title and land tenure, rental and capital growth prospects and opportunity to add value."
Ascendas Group operates in India through several entities – Ascendas Land International Pte Ltd, Ascendas India Development Trust and Ascendas India Growth Programme. Ascendas Land has completed two phases of International Tech Park in Pune comprising 1.3 million sqft and is starting the third phase construction of 0.6 million sqft. Ascendas India Development Trust has projects developed Ascendas OneHub series of projects in Gurgaon, Chennai and Coimbatore and International Tech Park in Gurgaon, and Ascendas India Growth Programme is a real estate fund that targets business space developments.
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