Unitech Corporate Parks (UCP), the AIM-listed India-focused real estate investment firm which has half a dozen IT parks as assets in India along with Unitech Ltd, has been approached by an unnamed buyer to acquire all of its portfolio.
It has been approached for a potential acquisition of UCP’s wholly owned subsidiary Candor Investments Limited, the holding company for its interests in its six real estate developments. The firm said the separate discussion in relation to the sale of one of the assets, named G2 announced earlier, has been suspended.
UCP's total portfolio is to build 21 million sft of commercial assets of which it has developed close to 6 million sft. The company had hired Jones Lang LaSalle India to sell the G2 asset located in Gurgaon. However, as first reported by VCCircle, this had got stuck due to disagreements with a third-party firm which is the actual land owner in the project.
Earlier, Blackstone was said to be a front-runner to strike the deal for G2, which could fetch up to $500 million on its own. With the new proposal which combined all assets of UCP, the deal size would become even bigger and could turn it into the single-biggest real estate deal ever in the country.
However, one source said that the deal is a long walk from hereon. “Apart from the key assets in Gurgaon and Noida, rest of them are not too lucrative. They are also developing an IT park in Kolkata, where other peers have been struggling to sell ready IT office space,†he said on the condition of anonymity.
When contacted by VCCircle, a Unitech spokesperson declined to comment anything beyond the official disclosure.
Sources indicate that Unitech and UCP have been approached by an international developer with exposure in China and Brazil, which will be backed by a private equity fund in the proposed transaction.
Four real estate analysts VCCircle spoke to indicate that the deal could fetch Rs 4,000 crore ($660 million).
The current market capitalisation of UCP stands at close to £140 million or $232 million and it is trading at a discount to its NAV. It holds 60 per cent in the string of assets with Unitech holding the rest.
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(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)