ASF Group is not scouting for buyers to sell its IT office property in Delhi NCR, which is part of an under development SEZ joint venture project with a real estate investment arm of JP Morgan, the realty company informed. However, the project has received interest from other investors and the company is evaluating the proposals and may bring in fresh funds for the project.
The statement is pursuant to a VCCircle report last week, which said JP Morgan and ASF Group are looking to sell their IT office JV for $101 million (Rs 500-560 crore). Earlier, JP Morgan had declined to comment on the story, while Anil Saraf promoter of ASFGroup, had said he was out of the country when contacted on the phone.
Speaking to VCCircle, Prashant Bhalla , vice president (corporate affairs), at ASF Group said: “With regards to the IT Insignia SEZ project, we have been approached by prospective investors, but there has been no conclusive decision. We are only evaluating the offers that have come to us and we vehemently deny that neither us nor the JP Morgan real estate fund is looking out or scouting for buyers.”
ASF group is developing Gwal Pahari, an IT SEZ in Gurgaon, in partnership with JP Morgan's real estate fund through a special purpose vehicle, ASF Insignia SEZ Pvt Ltd (previously Canton Buildwell Pvt Ltd). The project is being developed on a 70-acre plot and the first IT building of this SEZ is already operational.
The IT component of the park is around 3 million square feet of which the first building has an area of close to 1 million square feet, with tenants like TCS, IBM and others.
The overall project would consist of commercial office spaces, IT space for non export segment, knowledge incubation centre, fully serviced apartment and residential units, hyper mall and essential micro retail and other facilities.
Bhalla said ASF is also planning to set up more IT and commercial infrastructure projects (mixed use integrated developments similar to ASF Insignia) in southern and western parts of the country.
(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)
