Ascendas to acquire 1.85 million square feet property from Phoenix

Ascendas to acquire two buildings with a combined leasable area in Hitec City

Ascendas Property Fund Trustee Pte Limited, the trustee-manager of Ascendas India Trust, announced on Tuesday that it has entered into a forward purchase agreement with Phoenix Ventures Private Limited to acquire two buildings with a combined leasable area of around 1.85 million square feet in Hitec City.

The two-stage transaction involves subscription for debentures issued by the co-developer entities of the two buildings amounting to Rs 7.96 billion in the first stage. It will initiate complete acquisition via purchase of 100 per cent of the shares in the co-developer entities once the required leasing criteria is being met in the buildings with a total purchase consideration, not expected to exceed Rs 140 billion in the next phase, according to the Singapore-based real estate investment company.

"The proposed acquisition of aVance A1 and A2 will allow us to further strengthen our presence in Hyderabad, which is currently witnessing robust rental growth arising from healthy demand from global IT companies. The location within the city's prime IT corridor in hitch city is contiguous to aVance Business Hub where we own 1.50 million square feet. This will help our tenants to gain economies of scale while offering their employees access to transportation and proximity to retail and residual hubs," Ascendas Property Fund chief executive officer Sanjeev Dasgupta said.