Singapore investors GIC and Ascendas-Singbridge have acquired a 16-acre land parcel in Pune, India, for their SGD600m (€375m) investment partnership.
The Ascendas India Growth Programme (AIGP), of which sovereign wealth fund GIC is the principal investor, was established in 2013 with SGD300m of capital.
The acquisition of the development site in Kharadi, suburban business district of Pune, was acquired from local company Kohinoor Group.
It is the second investment for the partnership. Its first was the development of the International Tech Park in Gurgaon.
The land parcel in Pune will be developed into an IT Special Economic Zone with supporting amenities and has total development potential of 2.2m sqft.
The first phase will offer approximately 1m sqft of space, and is scheduled to be completed by early 2020.
Sanjay Dutt, CEO of operations and private funds at Ascendas-Singbridge India, said: “Pune has seen consistently strong demand for business space. This is evident from the high occupancy levels at IT parks in the city managed by Ascendas-Singbridge.”
Dutt said that the new site in Kharadi will be able to offer their occupiers more options within the Indian city.
The latest acquisition by AIGP is in line with plans by Ascendas-Singbridge and GIC to grow their portfolio and to deepen their presence in India, the partners said.
Ascendas-Singbridge, which is majority-owned by state-owned Temasek, also manages the Ascendas India Development Trust and the company hopes to create more funds in the country.
Speaking to IPE Real Estate earlier this year, Jonathan Yap, CIO and head of real estate funds at Ascendas-Singbridge, said: “We are exploring the possibility of launching more private funds for development of IT parks and logistics assets in India,” Yap says.
