Real Estate firm Salarpuria Sattva has bought French multinational Schneider Electric’s Rs 8 lakh sqft commercial property for over Rs 100 crore.
“The agreement has been signed and the money has been exchanged amongst the two parties. The property was being used for many years by Schneider before they decided to divest it,” said two persons aware of the deal.
Salarpuria Sattva is looking to expand its commercial portfolio both organically and inorganically. The company will use the land parcel to rebuild commercial property for the IT sector.
“The property is built on 6 acres land and Salarpuria Sattva has decided to completely rebuild it as electronic city is one of the IT hubs of Bangalore,” said one person quoted above.
Salarpuria Sattva MD Bijay Agarwal and CBRE, advisor to the deal, refused to offer comments for this story, while Nagaraja Rao senior official in Schneider Electric, denied the transaction.
Salarpuria plans to expand its commercial portfolio to 24 million square feet over the next two years across Hyderabad and Bengaluru from 15 mn sq ft at present. The company expects 65% of its revenue to come from commercial portfolio by 2020 and to double its rental income to Rs 1,800 crore over the next two years.
Bengaluru has shown strong growth in absorption over the past 3 years and continued to be the undisputed leader in 2018 in terms of transaction volumes at 13.4 million sq ft, up 14.5%, showed data from Knight Frank India.
In 2018, Salarpuria Sattva raised Rs 700 crore from American private equity firm Blackstone Group to expand its commercial portfolio and the total development area under the Blackstone-Salarpuria Sattva platform increased to 13 million sq ft in Hyderabad.
Separately, the firm is also looking to acquire distressed hotels across India to strengthen its presence in the segment. It was one of the front-runners for the 323-room Trident property in Hyderabad, which was sold under India’s dedicated bankruptcy mechanism.
India’s office property market recorded a historical absorption of 46.8 million sq ft in 2018, led by sustained interest in leasing more space. Stable business scenario, growth potential and increased on-time supply have contributed to highest-ever transaction volumes during the year, the Knight Frank report noted.
Source: Economic Times