DLF agrees to sell Kolkata IT park to local developers for ₹637 crore
- DLF continues to own and manage another tech park named Kolkata Tech Park 2 in the eastern city. It is a 1.1 million sq ft commercial office development on a special economic zone (SEZ), with 18 acres of land attached for further development.
Bengaluru: DLF Ltd, the country's largest real estate firm, said on Friday that its subsidiary DLF Info City Developers (Kolkata) Ltd has entered into an agreement to sell its commercial office park in Kolkata to local developers Primarc Group and RDB group for ₹637 crore.
The 1.4 million sq ft office property—Kolkata Tech Park 1—in suburban Kolkata's Rajarhat area will be sold to RDB Primarc Techno Park LLP, an affiliate of Primarc and RDB Group.
DLF continues to own and manage another tech park named Kolkata Tech Park 2 in the eastern city. It is a 1.1 million sq ft commercial office development on a special economic zone (SEZ), with 18 acres of land attached for further development.
Also read: DLF’s second going: Can the real estate giant succeed beyond its comfort zone?
“DLF will utilize this capital to invest in high-growth markets that will generate superior returns for its shareholders. This is reflective of the value embedded in our core assets created over the years with good quality tenant partners and asset management," Sriram Khattar, vice chairman and managing director, DLF rental business, told Mint.
JLL was the transaction advisor for the deal.
Gurugram-based DLF has also developed a large residential project DLF New Town Heights in Kolkata.
The DLF group has a 42 million sq ft operational commercial office portfolio. Another 14 million sq ft is under construction. The projects are largely concentrated in Gurugram, Chennai and Noida.
DLF is one of the largest commercial office developers in the country.
September quarter
The company said in October, after its September quarter earnings, that its rental business has experienced a positive upturn and demonstrated steady growth. "Encouraged by these strong trends, we have accelerated our capex commitments to fuel growth of our rental portfolio," the company said.
Also read: Is DLF’s dull show in the September quarter a one-off?
The recovery of the office sector after the pandemic has been gradual and uncertain. This year, however, it’s on a strong footing to achieve record leasing. The January-September period has already marked the highest leasing for the period. Office leasing is likely to see a historic high of 70 million sq ft in 2024, across nine cities, surpassing the peak of 66.6 million sq ft seen in 2019, as per estimates by property advisory CBRE India.
As always, Bengaluru led the office space absorption during the January-September period, accounting for about 30% of the total leasing. It was followed by Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad.
"Kolkata as a commercial office market is small, but it is the gateway city to the east. We are seeing a lot of GCCs (global capability centres) entering Kolkata," said Ram Chandnani, managing director, advisory and transaction services, CBRE India.
Chandani said that Kolkata is seeing good momentum in office leasing in 2024, and will touch 1 million sq ft in 2024.
“It’s a good opportunity for developers to build office projects in Kolkata, because of the non-availability of quality supply,” he said.
DLF's stock settled 1% higher at ₹822 on Friday on the National Stock Exchange.
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First Published:29 Nov 2024, 07:32 PM IST
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