Brookfield looks to spread its wings in South for commercial deals

Canadian Investor taps Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune for commercial deals

Canadian private equity investor Brookfield is looking to enter cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and others after having bought commercial properties in Mumbai and National Capital Region (NCR). 

“Already, it (Brookstone) is one of the biggest landlords in the NCR and Mumbai and now is looking to do deals with developers in cities in the South,” said a source in the know. Blackstone and KKR, two of Brookfield’s global rivals, already have a sizeable presence in the South. 

In Mumbai, Brookfield has around six million sq ft of commercial space and around 20 million sq ft in the NCR, and Kolkata.

According to the source, Brookfield is either developing or acquiring commercial properties worth over three to four million sq ft a year, which is unprecedented in the realty space.

Brookfield declined to comment on the issue.

Out of the $7.5 bilion Brookfield invested in the country, about $4.5 billion is in real estate. The remaining is mainly in infrastructure and a small amount in private equity, industry sources said. Brookfield has also lent around $450 million to property developers. 

In the past, deals have included properties that have been problematic and required turning around. For instance, in 2014, Brookfield bought Unitech Corporate Parks (UCP) for Rs 2,034 crore. UCP was developing six infotech special economic zones in the NCR and Kolkata. In 2016, Brookfield bought the 4.5 million sq ft commercial property portfolio of Hiranandani family in Powai area of Mumbai for about Rs 6,700 crore in the biggest commercial property deal in the country. It has also bought a business park that belonged to the Essar group in 2018.

In contrast, US-based Blackstone has invested over $5 billion in Indian properties, and now along with its partners, runs a commercial portfolio of over 100 million sq ft. It is presently involved in a JV with the Embassy group and rolling out the country’s first real estate investment trust or Reit.

Brookfield, which raised $15 billion for the global real estate this February, could put as much as 10 per cent of the funds raised in Indian real estate, Business Standard reported earlier. Those who track the sector say that Brookfield is more than likely to invest more money in Indian commercial properties in a bid to vie for the deals that are aggressively being snapped up by global peer Blackstone.

Fact sheet

• Brookfield has around six mn sq ft in Mumbai and nearly 20 mn sq ft in the NCR and Kolkata
• Brookfield is either developing or acquiring properties worth over three to four mn sq ft
• Out of the $ 7.5 bn Brookfield has deployed in India, $4.5 bn is in realty. The rest is in infra & PE
• Brookfield has also lent $450 mn in debt to property developers 
• In 2014, Brookfield bought Unitech Corporate Parks for Rs 2034 cr
• In 2016, Brookfield bought the 4.5-mn sq ft property portfolio of Hiranandani