Canada's Brookfield in final talks to buy assets of Bharti Realty in NCR

Canada-based Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is advanced stages of talks with Bharti Realty, the real estate arm of Bharti Enterprises, to buy into a portfolio of assets of the latter in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), said sources in the know.

Though the exact value of the deal is not known, Bharti Realty’s properties in the three WorldMark towers in Delhi Aerocity and another in Gurugram are part of the deal, informed sources.

WorldMark, New Delhi has an area of 1.5 million square feet (msf). WorldMark, Gurugram has 0.76 msf area.

The deal is expected to get closed by the end of February next year, added sources.

When contacted, a Brookfield spokesperson said, “We will not be commenting on this matter.”

A Bharti spokesperson said: “As a policy, we do not comment on market speculation.”

Bharti Realty is managing 5 msf of commercial spaces in Delhi, Gurugram, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Bengaluru, and Chennai. It is also currently developing over 9 msf of commercial real estate in Delhi-NCR.

Recently, Brookfield bought 12.5 msf of commercial properties from Bengaluru-based RMZ for Rs 14.680 crore. The deal also included Menda family-promoted co-working company CoWrks.

Brookfield has also filed for public issue of Rs 4,000-crore real estate investment trust (REIT). The issue is expected to come out by the year-end or early next year, said sources.

Brookfield owns 25 msf of commercial properties in the country.

Brookfield in the past had acquired assets of Unitech Corporate Parks, Hiranandani family assets in Powai area of Mumbai, Essar Group’s Equinox Business Park, among others. It also bought assets of Hotel Leela.

Recently, Blackstone had inked a Rs 9,160-crore deal to buy the commercial portfolio of Prestige Estates of Bengaluru.

Besides a steady and fixed income and exit through REITs, commercial properties have attracted billions of dollars worth of investments from the likes of Blackstone, Brookfield, Xander, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, among others.

Blackstone has floated two REITs with its partners, K Raheja Corp and Embassy Group.

Private equity (PE) investments in real estate are expected to bounce back to $6 billion, registering 30 per cent year-on-year growth in 2021 on the back of improving economic sentiment, supported by policy reforms and growth in key emerging sectors, according to the latest report by Savills India — a global property consultancy firm. 

Savills Research also expects PE investors to assess an opportunity of around $330 million in the industrial and warehousing segment in 2021. This is approximately 17 per cent higher, compared to the average annual investments during the period between 2016 and 2020.