Mapletree Investment to buy Chennai’s SP Infocity IT park at Rs 24.5 billion in largest real estate asset transaction in India

Mapletree Investment, a Temasek-owned real estate asset manager, has come out as the highest bidder to buy Chennai’s SP Infocity IT park. An amount of Rs 24.5 billion has been offered by Mapletree for acquiring SP Infocity. This deal is reportedly said to be the largest-ever single real estate asset transaction in India. The IT park is owned by a consortium of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Shapoorji Pallonji Investment Advisors. The consortium acquired SP Infocity in 2015 for $220 million. Other major real estate deals completed in India – such as the DLF-GIC transaction worth $1.9 billion and the Hiranandani-Brookfield deal worth $1 billion – involved a portfolio of assets. However, the Mapletree-Infocity arrangement is going to be for a single asset. As reported, Mapletree Investment has come out on top, beating the GIC-K Raheja Corp alliance that was the other entity in the final round. The IT park reportedly also evinced interest from companies such as Ascendas-Singbridge Group, Brookfield Asset Management, Xander Group and Blackstone Group for its acquisition. The leasable space available at SP Infocity is nearly 2.7 million sq ft. 99 per cent of the space is already occupied with tenants including the likes BNP Paribas, Amazon India, HSBC and World Bank.