US-based private equity firm Blackstone is on the final lap of talks to buy a commercial complex in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex for about Rs 30 billion, said a source in the know.
The office complex One BKC is owned by Radius Developers and promoted by Sanjay Chhabria.
This will be one of the biggest deals in commercial real estate this year.
Blackstone did not comment on the issue. In March, Indiabulls Real Estate had entered into a deal with Blackstone to sell 50 per cent stake in two commercial properties in Mumbai — Indiabulls Finance Centre and One Indiabulls Centre — to the latter for Rs 47.50 billion.
A senior executive at Radius said it was too early to talk about any deal.
One BKC is a 1.5 million square feet (sq.ft) swanky office complex in BKC, and has tenants such as Facebook, Amazon, Bank of America, Cisco, among others.
Prior to starting Radius Developers, Chhabria worked with Wadhwa Group. Blackstone has aggressively bought commercial properties in the past couple of years, and built a portfolio of over 100 million sq.ft along with its partners.
Along with its partner Embassy group, it is gearing up for the first real estate investment trust (REIT) in the country.
Recently, Blackstone entered into a deal with Indiabulls Real Estate to buy a commercial property in Chennai for Rs 8.5 billion.
In June, Blackstone Group had raised about $9.4 billion for two new funds – the largest-ever fund dedicated to real estate investments in Asia as well as its first private equity fund for the region.
It formed joint ventures with Embassy Group for office properties in the south and with Panchshil Realty for properties in western India.
Blackstone also picked up 15 per cent stake in K Raheja Corp.
Source: Business-Standard