Forbes India: the Brookfield
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HOW HOUSING.COM CAME BACK REAL ESTATE CO-WORKING IN A POST-COVID WORLD SPECIAL RNI REG. NO. MAHENG/2009/28102 RNI REG. NO. PRICE ` 200 JULY 2, 2021 PLUS WHERE INDIA REAL ESTATE SPECIAL REAL ESTATE STANDS ON CRYPTO ANUJ RANJAN Head of Europe and Asia-Pacifi c Private Equity, and CEO of South Asia and Middle East, Brookfi eld FORBESINDIA.COM THE / VOLUME 13 ISSUE 14 JULY 2, 2021 14 JULY 13 ISSUE / VOLUME BROOKFIELD HOW THE CANADIAN INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT FIRM DEPLOYED $11.5 BILLION WAY IN INDIA IN A PANDEMIC YEAR www.forbesindia.com he fi rst time Anuj Ranjan set foot in India was on November 23, 2008. While he is Indian by origin, Ranjan was Tborn and raised in Canada, and was here from Toronto to build Canadian investment manager Brookfi eld Asset Management’s (BAM) India business. On landing in Mumbai, he went straight to the Trident (Oberoi) at Nariman Point and checked in. Three days later, the hotel was the target of a terrorist attack, till date Mumbai’s worst nightmare. Ranjan received harried calls from his offi ces in New York and Toronto asking him if he wanted to go back, but Ranjan decided against it. “It was, in a way, a sort of homage to where we had landed, this is where we had these events, it didn’t scare us off from investing in the country. And on the back of that, of course, we grew to be what we are 22 today, $20 billion invested in India,” REAL ESTATE SPECIAL COVER STOR Y says Ranjan, managing partner at the fi rm, who launched and headed Brookfi eld’s India operations. Last October, he was elevated as the global head of business development, head of Europe and Asia-Pacifi c private equity, and CEO of South Slow and Asia and the Middle East for BAM. While Ranjan now spends his time between the Dubai and London offi ces, he can’t stop gushing about the fact that of the nearly $20 billion the Steady: fi rm has invested in India since it set up an offi ce in the country ciallyoffi in 2009 with three employees (including The Brookfi eld Way him), it has deployed over half of it (nearly $11.5 billion) amid the raging How the investment management fi rm pandemic in 2020. Brookfi eld is an NYSE- and Toronto-listed fi rm and focussed on building operational capability has deployed approximately $600 in India for fi ve years, cut its fi rst deal in 2014, billion in AUM across real estate, and in a pandemic year managed to deploy infrastructure, renewable power, private equity, and credit. $11.5 billion in the country “You know, we did not make a single major investment in India till BY POOJA SARKAR 2014. Of course, we started working on things but our fi rst big idea came in 2012 and by 2014 we closed that FORBES INDIA • JULY 2, 2021 “WE DIDN’T MAKE A SINGLE MAJOR INVESTMENT IN INDIA TILL 2014. OUR FIRST BIG IDEA CAME IN 2012 AND BY 2014 WE CLOSED THE DEAL, OUR FIRST INVESTMENT IN REAL ESTATE.” Anuj Ranjan Head of Europe and Asia-Pacifi c Private Equity, and CEO of South Asia and Middle East, Brookfi eld MADHU KAPPARATH JULY 2, 2021 • FORBES INDIA REAL ESTATE SPECIAL COVER STOR Y 24 (Left to right) Nawal Saini, Dev Santani, Ankur Gupta, Aditya Joshi and Arpit Agarwal of deal which was our fi rst investment some stock in that company as part of Brookfi eld at largely in the real estate space,” Ranjan training. It is meant to be an exercise their offi ce in minority deals Powai, Mumbai reminisces of one of the most complex to get the best out of the youngsters in greenfi eld deals in Indian real estate over a long in the company to demonstrate if developments. Zoom call from his London offi ce. their ideas are actually workable and And that did not make sense to us. It On June 12, 2014, Brookfi eld it also gives them access to the senior wasn’t the kind of thing we wanted announced that it would acquire management. And sometimes, some of to do. We also didn’t want to come Unitech Corporate Parks Plc (UCP), these ideas turn into real transactions. in and do completely greenfi eld a London Stock Exchange-listed UCP was one of those ‘best ideas’. development until we had built out India-focussed real estate investment Between 2006 and 2011, a real operating capability, which fi rm, for around (£205.9 million) or investments in Indian real estate came much later,” Ranjan explains. `2,034 crore. What is interesting is were essentially in large greenfi eld What Ranjan wanted was a how they zeroed in on this asset. developments, especially residential. pie of the burgeoning offi ce space Brookfi eld runs a global The global fi nancial crisis took a little in India—he believed there was programme called the Best Ideas sheen away from a lot of foreign funds signifi cant opportunity for the rent Program. Every month, nearly 1,200 (impacted back home, many folded yield to grow over the years. But investment professionals globally log in India) but domestic capital kept the problem was they didn’t want in to this call and critique the best pouring in into residential projects. to do a minority transaction. They idea. And if the idea is approved, “Watching the kinds of transactions started looking at platforms, larger NEHA MITHBAWKAR FOR FORBES INDIA FORBES FOR NEHA MITHBAWKAR that person is given a budget to buy that were happening, they were companies, ready properties but FORBES INDIA • JULY 2, 2021 BROOKFIELD Brookfi eld Business Business Assets under management group Head (AUM) Year Assets Value 2020 Indostar $295 mln for 57% Private Equity Aditya Joshi $1.5 bln 2020 Everise $360 mln 2018 KMC roads portfolio $0.7 bln Infrastructure Arpit Agrawal $10.5 bln 2019 East West Pipeline $1.9 bln 2020 Jio towers $7.6 bln 2017 Terraform platform $187 mln Renewables Nawal Saini $580 mln 2019 Axis Assets $231.13 mln 2020 Renewable-focussed loan book from Piramal $198.21 mln 2014-15 UCP $800 mln 2017-18 Hiranandani Powai Portfolio $1 bln 2019 The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts $650 mln Real Estate Ankur Gupta $7 bln 2020 RMZ portfolio & CoWrks $2 bln 2021 Brookfi eld India Reit $1.5 bln In Pipeline Renaissance ARC - - Incor $ 100 mln Brookfi eld Special Dev Santani $ 240 mln Investments (BSI) - - Total Environment $ 130 mln SOURCE Compiled from publicly available data there weren’t many in India back Ranjan recalls, “We did our best was only in 2019 that Gupta returned then that were large in size and idea on UCP and showed it to the to India and started working in the scale. Meanwhile, in 2011, its global group globally. The group challenged Mumbai offi ce located at the Bandra 25 peer Blackstone Group swooped in it, we debated it. And in the end we Kurla Complex (BKC). Gupta is the and closed its fi rst and the country’s said, ‘You know this stock does seem head of real estate and a managing largest commercial asset deal after like great value. So why don’t we buy partner at the fi rm. But at that time, fl agging off its real estate arm in some stock’.” And from buying some the UCP deal literally had people 2007. For an undisclosed amount, stock, they saw an opportunity. “After spread across four continents it went on to acquire a substantial we became a small shareholder, we trying to put the deal together. stake in the Bengaluru-headquartered felt this could be something more “We were able to put together Manyata Business Park from meaningful. Let’s see if we can a transaction that spanned four Embassy Property Developments; it become a larger shareholder. And continents. It was a UK-AIM listed continues to hold on to the asset. then, let’s see if there’s an opportunity entity where while the assets were in The time for commercial had to privatise the whole business.” India, the structure of the company arrived. In the middle of all this was But the problem was the was held in Mauritius and then there Delhi-based realtor Unitech, in its complicated structure of UCP. The was the holding company. And a lot heydays of 2008 the second-largest holding company for UCP was of the transaction work was being realty company in India by market Candor Investments Ltd, which was done in the New York offi ce. And capitalisation, that had even managed incorporated in Isle of Man. UCP that’s the power of the fi rm that it to bag Lehman Brothers’ last India had formed a 60:40 joint venture really comes together when it comes cheque of `740 crore. But times had with Unitech. Forty percent of the to executing our ideas,” says Gupta. turned rough and its Alternative asset was held by Unitech and it “The thing I’m most proud of and Investment Market (AIM)-listed had fi nancing against it as well. of that opportunity was the fact that fi rm, where its commercial offi ce So Brookfi eld had to work with over the two years from the fi rst properties were housed, was the banks in India and Unitech share we bought until we did 100 becoming an easy target for a sale to put the whole deal in place.