Ivanhoe Cambridge, the real estate subsidiary of Canada’s second-largest pension fund CDPQ, and Bengaluru-based Embassy Group have shelved their joint office development platform planned with a corpus of $500 million (Rs 3,650 crore with exchange rates in early 2021). They will instead look at asset-level deals in the country, sources in the know said.
Recently, Ivanhoe Cambridge and Singaporean investor Mapletree announced a Rs 15,400-crore partnership to develop, own and operate technology-focused office spaces in the country. The two have identified strategic properties and projects to meet this objective.
“We will do asset-level deals and not a platform for office spaces,” said Aditya Virwani, chief operating officer at Embassy Group. Though Virwani did not elaborate on the reason, the sources said that Ivanhoe was not happy with the tax structures in the proposed alternative investment fund to be floated for the venture.
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When contacted, Chanakya Chakravarti, managing director, India, Asia-Pacific, said that they shelved the platform with Embassy for mutually agreed business reasons. “Our decision is by no means related to tax efficiencies,” he added.
In March 2021, Ivanhoe and Embassy launched the office platform with an investment capacity of $500 million. Ivanhoe and Embassy were to invest in an 80:20 ratio, with the initial focus on Bengaluru and Chennai. The platform aimed to meet demand in the expansion of global capability centres and research and development campuses and invest in develop-to-core and acquisition of partially developed business park opportunities.
The first phase of the 60-acre Embassy East Business Park located on Whitefield Main Road in Bengaluru was the seed asset of the platform.
Last year, Blackstone Group bought Embassy Industrial Parks from Warburg Pincus and Embassy Group for about Rs 5,000 crore after both the partners decided to monetise the joint venture.
Embassy Group and Blackstone together floated and listed Embassy Office Parks, the country’s first real estate investment trust or REIT.
Last year, with Lodha group and Bain Capital, Ivanhoe Cambridge set up a $1-billion industrial partnership, aiming to create 30 million square feet of operating assets to serve India’s digital economy.
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The partnership will develop a next-generation green digital infrastructure platform of logistics and light industrial parks as well as in-city fulfilment centres across multiple cities in India, the partners said.
Ivanhoe Cambridge invests internationally alongside strategic partners and major real estate funds. Through subsidiaries and partnerships, the company holds interests in 1,500 buildings, primarily in the industrial and logistics, office, residential and retail sectors. Ivanhoe Cambridge held 77 billion Canadian dollars in real estate assets as of December 31, 2022.