Property giant CapitaLand plans to grow its assets under management (AUM) in India from the current $3.3 billion to $7 billion by 2024. This was announced in Bangalore, India, on Oct 1 by Lee Chee Koon, CapitaLand’s group CEO. The group will invest capital to grow its development pipeline, as well as work with capital partners to grow its fund management business.
CapitaLand currently has 17.4 million sq ft of commercial space comprising business and IT parks, industrial and logistics properties. They are located in Bangalore, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Pune. Close to 80% of the portfolio is held under Ascendas India Trust and two private funds – Ascendas India Growth Programme and Ascendas India Logistics Programme.
The company’s business parks in India have an occupancy rate of over 95% and cater to both MNCs and local companies. The planned expansion will ride on India’s growing workforce, growing e-commerce and IT-enabled services, and demand for high-quality logistic facilities. CapitaLand aims to more than double the footprint of these types of properties to about 40 million sq ft by 2024.
CapitaLand’s developments underway in India include 17.9 million sq ft of business park space in Bangalore, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Pune. One of the projects is MTB 5 located in International Tech Park in Bangalore. The 0.7 million sq ft multi-tenanted building is owned by Ascendas India Trust. The building, which has been 100% pre-leased to a leading IT Services company, is expected to be completed in the second half of 2020.
“CapitaLand’s integration of Ascendas-Singbridge portfolio since July 2019 has strengthened our competitive edge globally and in India, one of our strategic markets for growth where we have fully integrated capabilities,” says Lee. “We see strong potential to leverage new economy trends such as the growth in e-commerce, urbanisation and knowledge economies to expand in the business park and logistics sectors, which are core sectors for the India economy.”
In addition, its wholly-owned business unit, The Ascott Ltd, has a network of more than 1,500 residential units across 10 properties. These include seven serviced residences that will be opened by 2022.
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