Several global private players are racing to get hold of Chennai IT park, popularly known as SP Infocity. As per a recent report, bigwigs like Blackstone Group, Brookfield Asset Management, and Ascendas-Singbridge Group have placed separate bids to acquire SP Infocity, a 2.7-million-square-feet office park in Chennai, for an estimated Rs. 2500 crore.
Chennai IT park is presently owned equally by Shapoorji Pallonji Group and Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board. The office park in the southern metro’s IT corridor was partially occupied when CPPIB came in as an investor three years ago.
The SP-CPPIB joint venture’s business model is to own, operate and sell tenanted office buildings in the country. Now that the complex is completely occupied with A-grade tenants, SP-CPPIB is planning to sell the assets as part of its business model.
The auction process is carried out by international property consultants JLL, Times Of India reported. At present, SP Infocity houses the offices of World Bank, Amazon, BNP Paribas, Freshworks, and HSBC.
Besides CPPIB, SP has a similar partnership with insurance agent Allianz. It was reported last week that the SP-Allianz combine was in exclusive talks to acquire Waverock, the 2.3-million-sqft office park in Hyderabad, jointly owned by Tishman Speyer and GIC, for Rs 1,800 crore.
India’s rental income generating office spaces has lately attracted a string of high profile investors. Private equity firms like Blackstone, Brookfield and Qatar Investment Authority have all acquired office lease spaces across the country.
Over the last year, strong US economic growth has propelled the occupancy of office spaces by technological companies with almost one-third share in the first half of the current calendar year.
While India’s tenanted office absorption stood at 42-million-square feet in 2017, it has already crossed 20-million-square feet in the first half of the ongoing calendar year, as per a report by CBRE.