Godrej Fund Management, the real estate-focused private equity arm of the Godrej Group, has bought a land parcel, with 1 million sq ft development potential, in Bengaluru urban from Puravankara in a deal valued around Rs 700 crore, said people with direct knowledge of the development. The deal includes an upfront payment of around Rs 525 crore while the remaining amount will be paid before the end of this year.
“The deal was signed this week despite the second wave and shows institutional investors’ continued interest for office properties in India,” said one of the people cited above. Puravankara is also in talks with global funds to form two separate investment platforms with a combined corpus of Rs 3,000 crore by leveraging some of its assets to fund its future expansion plans.
Karan Bolaria, MD of Godrej Fund Management confirmed the deal without elaborating on the size and financial terms of the transaction. Last year, Godrej Fund Management had bought a land parcel in north Bengaluru from Century Group in a similar deal valued around Rs 700 core, marking its foray into the information technology capital of the country.
ET’s separate email queries to Godrej Fund Management, Puravankara and transaction advisor CBRE South Asia remained unanswered till press time. Godrej Fund Management has two funds including a $450-million Godrej Build to Core and a $150-million Godrej Office Fund.
The Godrej Group entity had started investing in office projects around three years ago and counts Allianz Real Estate and Dutch pension fund manager APG Asset Management among its partners. APG has partnered with the Indian private equity player in four funds across residential and office segments. In January, the fund achieved the first close of its $500 million office development platform, GBTC II, in partnership with APG Asset Management N.V., the cornerstone investor in the platform.
Under this platform, Godrej Fund Management will have the ability to develop grade A office assets that will be valued in excess of Rs 11,000 crore on completion. The total value of office assets including those from its previous funds will take the portfolio value upon completion to over $3 billion, or Rs 22,000 crore. Godrej Fund Management and subsidiary GodrejInvestment Advisors will together contribute a fifth of the capital in this new office development fund. GBTC is a club-style office investment strategy that invests in developing world-class office buildings in prime locations across leading office markets in India.
