Siemens Sells Off Prime Property To P & G

Engineering major Siemens India has sold its property at Saki Naka in Mumbai to consumer products multinational Procter & Gamble (P&G). The deal was struck recently and P&G would be constructing a corporate office on the land over the next two years.

Confirming the move, market sources said the deal had been clinched at Rs 13.5 crore.

The Saki Naka property has an area of about 7000 square metres. It housed some of Siemens' facilities including its training departments. Siemens has not been using this facility for some time.

The deal makes sense for P&G as it has been wanting to consolidate all its corporate offices under one roof.

Currently, P&G operates out of two floors at Tiecicon House in Mahalakshmi. But some divisions like healthcare still continue to occupy space at Godrej Soaps plant at Vikhroli.

P&G will now start building its corporate office at the Saki Naka property and this is expected to take some time.

The sale of the Siemens property is part of a restructuring exercise by the company. Last year, Siemens had sold its Worli Property to Great Eastern Shipping Company. Siemens has shifted its head office to Kharghar.

Siemens which had drawn up an elaborate investment plan and had expanded capacity expecting considerable industrial growth in the early nineties.

However, this did not materialise due to the industrial slowdown which gripped the economy. Major sectors like power, telecom and transport which were supposed to provide additional stimulus to industrial growth did not take off. Siemens was seriously affected as it is a major supplier to infrastructure sector and plunged into the red for the first time in 1996.

Consequently, it embarked upon a restructuring programme. It hived off its telecom division which was bleeding the company into a joint venture with parent Siemens of Germany. Last year it launched a VRS scheme and pared its workforce by 1300 people.