Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC is the front runner to acquire Mapletree Investments’ Global Tech Park in Bengaluru for around Rs 2,500 crore in what would be the largest private equity (PE) exit to date in India’s commercial real estate space, two people familiar with the negotiations said.
“GIC has been shortlisted and the deal is under documentation and has not been funded yet,” one of them said. Other global funds, including Blackstone, too had shown interest in the property, the person said. Global Tech Park is an integrated mixed-use project with developable area of 15 acres, or 2.5 million sq ft, at Marathahalli Outer Ring Road. Big corporates operating from the property include Vodafone and LinkedIn.
Singapore-based Mapletree, a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, had acquired 100% in the property earlier known as Assetz Global Technology Park in 2011 for Rs 800 crore. Mapletree and GIC did not respond to queries from ET. GIC has been aggressive in acquiring assets across residential, commercial and retail segments in the country and has stuck at least a dozen real estate transactions since 2007.
The sovereign wealth fund had invested $1.4 billion for 33% in real estate developer DLF’s rental arm, creating one of the biggest commercial platforms in India’s real estate market. It also has exposure to Godrej Properties, Brigade Group and Prestige Estates.
“GIC has been actively looking to step up investment in commercial space and Bangalore is one of the important markets for them,” said one of the persons cited earlier.
