Consumer products company Hindustan Unilever (HUL) is looking to offload more real estate assets. It plans to sell six of its apartments, all located in the prime area of south Mumbai. This sale is expected to fetch the company nearly R40 crore.
The apartments are all located in the elite neighbourhood of Malabar Hill, Nepeansea Road and Carmichael Road in buildings over 50 years old.
The smallest apartment on the block is of 550 square feet in Blue Haven, Malabar Hill, which is expected to fetch R40,000 per square feet rate, while the largest on the block measuring 1,491 square feet in Purnima, Nepeansea Road is expected to fetch about R9 crore on the higher side of per square feet rate of about R60,000.
In apartments in Gulistan (1,318 sq ft) and Mayflower (941 sq ft) buildings on Carmichael Road, the company is understood to be expecting a minimum or a ?guidance price? of R8 crore and R4.5 crore, respectively.
HUL has appointed global real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle to dispose off these properties.
In a response to queries e-mailed to HUL, the company spokesperson said, ?As part of normal business process, we continuously review our assets including real estate to unlock business value from idle assets.?
In a similar exercise, in 2007, HUL is understood to had put its residential assets in Juhu and Santacruz, Mumbai?s western suburbs on sale.
In 2012, the company sold one of its commercial property, Gulita, in Mumbai to Ajay Piramal-promoted Piramal Realty for R452.5 crore.
The company also leased out its former headquarters in Churchgate, Mumbai to Housing Development Finance Corporation, last year.
Over the last few years, corporates have been warming up to the idea of exiting their real estate holdings like lands, defunct factory buildings, unutilised offices or apartments used by their senior management employees at one time,and use the cash generated to repay debts or use it for growing their core businesses.
In Mumbai especially, where there is a paucity of land, most of these assets fetch good value as they happen to be in prime locations. Real estate developers have picked up some of these assets to then launch luxury apartments or high-end commercial properties.
