ITPL is now Intl Tech Park, Bangalore

After buying out the Tata's stake in International Tech Park Limited (ITPL) at Whitefield in Bangalore, Ascendas is rebranding the property as 'International Tech Park, Bangalore' (ITPB).

The company has also adopted the Ascendas perpetual 'A' brand identity to reaffirm its long-term commitment to Bangalore as an investment location.

The re-positioning to ITPB in Bangalore and the strengthening of Ascendas' presence in Bangalore comes at a time when Ascendas is becoming increasingly active in pursuing IT Park projects across India.

As part of the repositioning exercise, Ascendas has revised the widely-used abbreviated form, ITPL, to the acronym ITPB, which accurately reflects the park's brand name. This reference to ITPB is being implemented in all correspondences, locations and visual branding.

ITPL actually stands for the initials of the park holding company, Information Technology Park Limited.

Ascendas in India currently operates IT Parks and hi-tech buildings, as well as built-to-suit (BTS) and ready-built facilities (RBF). The company's widely-acclaimed property is International Tech Park, Bangalore (ITPB).

This landmark project has been followed by investments in Cyber Pearl and Vanenburg IT Park in Hyderabad, and the International Tech Park at Chennai, which will be ready in July, 2005.

The rebranding exercise in Bangalore reflects the repositioning of the park to become Ascendas' flagship in Bangalore, signaling Ascendas' intent to widen its scope beyond the park and assume a city-wide view to take on more projects and joint ventures, said Jonathan Yap, head of Ascendas Bangalore.

He further said "We hope to do more beyond ITPB. With the re-positioning of the park, we are effectively moving from the ITPL approach to a citywide approach to Bangalore. This opens up the possibility of doing more in Bangalore in addition to ITPB. This is only made possible due to the success of ITPB, and we have our joint venture partner KIADB to thank."

The 69-acre ITPB is India's first hi-tech park of its kind designed to provide 'work-live-play' environment for IT and technology-related businesses. It fully integrates a practical amalgamation of office, production and retail space. To date, the Park has a total built-up area of close to two million sq feet.

ITPB currently has five multi-tenanted buildings that are fully occupied and there is land available for ready expansion. It is the first business space facility in India to house a shopping mall and organise regular fun and fitness events for its occupants.

The mall offers functional banks, ATMs, Foreign Exchange, courier, lifestyle stores, laundry service, a wide range of food courts, medical clinic and a health club. Truly a 'World in a Park', the Park has more than 100 companies employing over 15,000 employees within.

Goh Kok Huat, CEO of Ascendas India operations and Chief Operating Officer of the Singapore-based parent company, Ascendas Pte Ltd, said "ITPB is a major property for the Ascendas group in India. We are now in three cities and one of a few developers with a South India portfolio. We aim to extend our pan-Asia geographical footprint into a pan-India presence as well."

He added that "repositioning to ITPB has an India-wide significance as it "will also pave the way for Ascendas to build on the success of our iconic park in Bangalore to create a series of top-line International Tech Parks (ITPs) across our key markets in India. A new ITP will soon be ready in Chennai and we expect to build more in the near future," added Goh.