Plots & Storeys
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
14 August 2020 FLASH UPDATE INDIA REAL ESTATE Plots & storeys India's weekly real estate news & numbers HIGHLIGHTS Blackstone set to acquire Prestige Group's assets Mall owners in Pune demand property tax waiver for US$ 1.7billion HSBC puts commercial building in South Embassy Group in talks with Indospace, ESR to Mumbai's Horniman Circle on the block monetise warehousing business ICICI Bank takes possession of Mantri SC reserves verdict on plea challenging NGT Developers' corporate office in Bengaluru order quashing EC for Godrej Reflections Have millions of homebuyers vanished? The Top realtors see spurt in take-over proposals for success of digital home sales says otherwise stressed office projects Japanese firm Amperex Technology Limited Sumitomo, Krishna group JV to invest INR 6.5bn acquires 180-acre at INR 5.5bn in Haryana in Gurugram township Delhi court pulls up Miniso Life Style for non- payment of rent CLICK HERE FOR Manish Agrawal [email protected] | Tel: (91 22) 6630 3068 LAST REPORT JM Financial Research is also available on: Bloomberg - JMFR <GO>, Thomson Publisher & Reuters S&P Capital IQ, FactSet and Visible Alpha. Please see Appendix I at the end of this report for Important Disclosures and Disclaimers and Research Analyst Certification. You can also access our portal www.jmflresearch.com JM FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONAL SECURITIES LIMITED India Real Estate 14 August 2020 We highlight this week’s top real estate news: Blackstone set to acquire Prestige Group's assets for US$ 1.7billion: Blackstone Group is set to acquire Prestige Group’s rental income assets for more than US$ 1.7billion in the largest real estate portfolio buyout in India, said three persons with direct knowledge of the matter. If the deal goes through, Prestige will use the money to repay all of its debt and deploy the rest as equity capital for growth, they said. The transaction involves ready, income-producing and under-construction properties in key cities of south India, including Bengaluru, Chennai and Mysore. “The term sheets have been signed and the deal is set to be concluded in the next few weeks,” said one of the persons. Blackstone will acquire 100 per cent control of around 20 million square feet of commercial space, including 16 million sq ft of ready and completely leased assets. The deal will include the developer’s nine operational malls and the combined assets, after adding Blackstone’s retail entity Nexus Malls, will double the private equity firm’s retail portfolio size. The acquisition will also include a portion of the group’s hospitality assets, said the people cited above. “The deal is somewhat similar to the DLF-GIC investment. Prestige is looking to deleverage its balance sheet with this transaction and prepare itself for the next phase of growth,” said one of the persons. (Source) Embassy Group in talks with Indospace, ESR to monetise warehousing business: Leading realty firm Embassy Group is in talks with Indospace and ESR to monetise its warehousing and industrial parks business at an enterprise value of INR 17.0- 20.0bn, according to sources. Bengaluru-based Embassy Group, which in 2015 formed a joint venture with private equity firm Warburg Pincus to buid industrial parks, is looking to monetise completed and under-construction assets of the JV. Embassy Industrial Parks, the JV firm, is developing warehousing projects at Chakan in Pune, Sriperumbudur and Hosur in Tamil Nadu; Farrukhnagar and Bilaspur in Delhi-NCR; and Kothur in Hyderabad. The total portfolio of the JV is 15-16 million sq ft, of which 3-4 million sq ft is operational. Warburg Pincus has a 70 per cent stake, while Embassy Group has 30 per cent shareholding in the JV. Earlier, sources had said Embassy Group is evaluating various options to monetise Embassy Industrial Parks. It could be the outright sale of the company or some new fund might come in as a new investor. The sources had said the enterprise value of the deal could be between INR 17.0-18.0bn. The debt of the JV is around INR 7.0bn. (Source) Equinix expands into India with acquisition of GPX India data centers: Equinix, Inc, the global interconnection and data center company, has acquired the India operations of GPX Global Systems, Inc. in an all-cash transaction value of US$ 161mn. This includes two data center campuses in Mumbai with more than 200 international brands and local companies, including the cloud service providers (CSPs), content delivery network (CDN) providers, all local carriers, 130 internet service providers (ISPs) and four internet exchanges, the company said in a release. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021 subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approval, the company said in a release. Globally, Platform Equinix comprises more than 210 data centers across 56 metros and 26 countries, providing data center and interconnection services for over 9,500 of businesses. Currently, it operates 46 IBX data centers in Asia-Pacific across 13 metros in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Osaka, Seoul, Singapore. (Source) JM View: While historically PE investments have been mainly limited to commercial real estate but both warehousing and data centres offer an emerging asset class to invest. Globally, these are large asset classes while in India they are at a nascent stage currently. JM Financial Institutional Securities Limited Page 2 India Real Estate 14 August 2020 SC reserves verdict on plea challenging NGT order quashing EC for Godrej Reflections: The Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on a plea challenging an NGT order quashing the environmental clearance granted to a high-rise luxury project by Godrej Properties Limited and Wonder Projects Development Private Limited in Bengaluru. The apex court had earlier issued notices to the Centre, the Karnataka government and others on an appeal filed by Wonder Projects Development Pvt. Ltd. and others. Senior advocate A M Singhvi, representing the project proponent, had argued that the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had reproduced its order from another case and stopped the project despite requisite consents. The green panel had ruled that the construction would fall within the buffer zone of the Kaikondrahalli lake and therefore is violative of the zoning laws. The NGT had said no environmental clearance (EC) can be granted for a construction that would violate the buffer zone of a lake. "It is clear that the project stipulates construction in the buffer zone, which is in violation of the zoning plan and a judgement of this tribunal as affirmed by the Supreme Court. Accordingly, the EC is quashed," it had said. (Source) Amazon leases 2.8 million sq ft space in Bengaluru, Chennai & Mumbai: Amazon has leased about 2.8 million square feet of space in Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai to expand its offices in India as online customers shop more frequently and with larger baskets. The Chennai office will come up in the Brigade World Trade Centre. In Mumbai, it has signed a long-term lease agreement for space at Godrej Two in Vikhroli suburb. “Amazon has some immediate requirements and has locked in property across multiple locations. These properties are expected to be up and running in 2021,” said one person aware of the deal. This is the third such transaction by Amazon since the lockdown. The company also finalised 900,000 sq. ft. of office space in Bagmane Rio in Bengaluru. “Amazon plans to utilise the new space to grow in India and cater to its global operations. The e-commerce behemoth already occupies over 10 million sq. ft. of office space in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Gurgaon. (Source) Top realtors see spurt in take-over proposals for stressed office projects: Top real estate developers such as Godrej Properties and Oberoi Realty are being flooded with takeover proposals for commercial properties from their distressed peers. So far, there were opportunities only in stalled residential projects for the realty majors. “We are getting a lot of proposals for office projects. We are well placed to use such opportunities, and these will be processed by our fund management arm,” said Pirojsha Godrej, chairman of Godrej Properties. Godrej Properties is seeing reasonable valuation from its partners in joint development/joint venture proposals, Godrej said in a recent call. Oberoi Realty is also loaded with similar proposals and is in the process of evaluating them, according to Vikas Oberoi. The developer is looking to build a portfolio of residential, office, and mall properties in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru, besides in Mumbai. Not only developers, even fund managers are seeing a spurt in takeover proposals for commercial properties. Mumbai-based Nisus Finance is curating a portfolio of commercial properties, and has received close to eight proposals since April, said Managing Director Amit Goenka. “There is a pressure on rent. Lease rent discounting (LRD) loans need refinancing. A large pipeline of such properties have come to us in April and May,” said Goenka. (Source) JM View: We remain positive on the commercial market trends as it gets consolidated into the hands of large institutional landlords. Calibrated supply, steady demand from MNC companies coupled with low vacancies / rentals are expected to augur well for the market going forward. JM Financial Institutional Securities Limited Page 3 India Real Estate 14 August 2020 Sumitomo, Krishna group JV to invest INR 6.5bn in Gurugram township: Krisumi corporation, a joint venture between Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo Corporation and Indian auto components major Krishna Group, will invest INR 6.5bn to develop the first phase of the 65-acre township in Gurugram. The investment excludes the land cost. The JV hopes to complete the project by June 2024, with three towers and 433 apartments priced up to INR 25mn.