CapitaLand Investment (CLI)’s wholly-owned subsidiary Ascendas India Development VII and its joint venture partner Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) have entered into separate agreements with CapitaLand India Trust (CLINT) to divest their stake in Ascendas IT Park (Pune) for 13.5 billion rupees (S$221.9 million). CLI holds a 78.5% stake and Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) owns 21.5% shareholding in Ascendas IT Park (Pune).
The sale consideration represents a premium of 9% to CLI’s valuation for ITPP-H in December 2021. The divestment of ITPP-H is subject to CLINT’s unitholders’ approval at an extraordinary general meeting and is targeted to be completed by February 2023.
ITPP-H will further enhance CLINT’s portfolio. ITPP-H is an IT Special Economic Zone, developed on a 25-acre 99-year leasehold land. It has a total floor area of 2.3 million square feet across four buildings. ITPP-H is close to 100% leased to prominent tenants such as Infosys Ltd., Synechron Technologies Pvt. Ltd., and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. Post-divestment, CLI will continue to provide property and lease management services for ITPP-H to CLINT.
According to Jonathan Yap, CEO, Listed Funds at CLI,
“CLI’s proposed divestment of ITPP-H to CLINT is in line with our strategy to provide quality, stable-performing assets to support the growth of our sponsored trusts. Adding another top-class IT park to CLINT’s strong portfolio of eight IT parks enables CLI to participate in CLINT’s growth in India, which is one of CLI’s core markets. The proposed divestment would increase our funds under management and fee-related earnings. With this transaction, CLI has announced gross divestments of S$2.9 billion year-to-date, close to our annual capital recycling target of S$3 billion. Almost 90% are divestments to our listed funds and private vehicles, demonstrating these platforms as key growth drivers for us. CLI has a pipeline of about S$10 billion of high-quality properties on our balance sheet, which we can potentially offer to our various fee income-generating listed funds and private vehicles,”
The buildings within ITPP-H have obtained Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification and Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) Platinum certification for Green Campus. They have incorporated several green features such as a district cooling system with high-performance water-cooled chillers, lifts with Variable Voltage Variable Frequency drives that regulate the speed of the lifts according to usage, energy efficient lighting features and fast electric vehicle charging stations.
CLI shares a symbiotic relationship with its listed trusts and private funds and has had an active year in supporting the growth of its managed funds. The proposed divestment of ITPP-H to CLINT follows CLI’s recent proposed divestment of Queensbay Mall in Penang to CapitaLand Malaysia Trust.
CLI’s other divestments to its listed funds and private vehicles include CapitaSky, a Grade A office building in Singapore, to CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust and CapitaLand Open End Real Estate Fund in March 2022 and Ascendas i-Link, a business park in Shanghai, to its China Business Park Core RMB Fund I in November 2022. CLI’s lodging business unit The Ascott Limited has also divested nine quality assets in Australia, Japan, France, USA and Vietnam to CapitaLand Ascott Trust.
