CapitaLand India Trust has entered into a so-called forward purchase agreement to acquire a one million sq ft IT park in India
The project, at Bangalore’s Outer Ring Road, comprises of two buildings with a total net leasable area of 1.5 million sq ft.
Under terms of the deal, CLINT will provide around $201 million to fund the development, and then take ownership of one of the buildings with a total NLA of one million sq ft. The remaining 0.5 million sq ft will be kept by the landowners.
The whole development will last from 1Q2023 to 4Q2025. CLINT plans to fund the first 12 months of the project with internal resources. It will then borrow to continue with the funding from 1H2024 onwards.
“The proposed acquisition will provide an opportunity to establish our presence in Outer Ring Road, India’s largest office micro-market, which has demonstrated resilient performance during the Covid-19 pandemic,” says Sanjeev Dasgupta, CEO of CLINT’s manager.
“With this acquisition, we will be able to offer our tenants even more office space options across the key markets in Bangalore,” he adds.
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CLINT describes the Outer Ring Road as Bangalore’s largest office micro-market.
This upcoming development is adjacent to an upcoming metro station and is surrounded by existing business parks, hospitality, retail and healthcare developments.
Upon completion of this development, CLINT’s area under operation in Bangalore will increase from 6.9 million sq ft to 7.9 million sq ft. Its portfolio size, including committed investment pipeline, will increase by 3.6% from 28 million sq ft to 29 million sq ft.
CLINT believes this deal “will improve the earnings and distributions for unitholders.”
