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Saturday, November 10, 2012

RIL in talks to buy Leela’s IT park


Chennai/Bangalore: Mukesh Ambani-controlled RIL is in the fray to acquire Hotel Leelaventure-promoted IT park in Chennai for Rs 172 crore, said people familiar with the matter. 
    The talks are advanced with Hotel Leela's board approving the sale to a preferred bidder last Friday. The IT Park has a built-up area of 2.20 lakh square feet, valuing it at nearly Rs 8,000 per square foot. A top Leela official said no definitive deal has been signed with anyone, adding serious discussions to divest the land assets were underway. An RIL spokesperson, however, refused to comment. 
    Since the property is classified as an IT park, RIL will have to mandatorily use it for ICT purposes only. "Reliance is now getting ready for the 4G play. We believe there is a lot of IT work for this foray for which Reliance would use the 
IT Park," sources said. RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani and Hotel Leela's C P Krishnan Nair have strong friendly ties, with the latter publicly stating that Ambani could be a "white knight" if his company was ever a target of hostile takeover. 
    Diversified conglomerate ITC, which operates a rival hospitality chain, holds a 14% stake in Hotel Leelaventure. The business park is ad
jacent to the soon to be launched Leela hotel at MRC Nagar in Chennai. Leela Group has been trying to find suitors for the IT Park for nearly a year. It first looked to lease out the property to IT companies which did not fructify. Having caught in a debt swirl, the group decided to sell the park. 
    "It is an IT park which has higher FSI rules. The end use therefore can't be anything 
other than IT. Leela has got a good deal as rentals are around Rs 60 to 65 per square foot which translates into a return of nearly 10%," sources said. Nairs-promoted Leelaventure has just concluded the terms for debt restructuring through RBI mandated Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) Cell. The hospitality major had agreed to sell some of the assets to repay debt. Leela has close to Rs 4,000 crore of debt under CDR. Under the terms, Leela has been given an extension of up to eight years for repaying the loan. It has been extended an additional termloan to support its operations. 
    The company is also selling its land parcel in Hyderabad, where it planned to build a luxury hotel. The group has decided to part develop land adjoining its hotel property in Bangalore for residential projects. It is also looking to develop its land parcel in Pune for residential purposes. 

L&T sells Chennai property for 88cr 
Chennai: Engineering and construction giant, Larsen & Toubro, has agreed to sell its Club House Road property, off the Mount Road, to Tablets India for nearly Rs 88 crore. The transaction values land at nearly Rs 4.6 crore a ground (1 ground is 2,400 square feet). 
    Interestingly, the price is about Rs 2 crore per ground less than a recent real estate transaction that happened on upmarket Kothari Road in Nungambakkam, where tractor major APC Tractor, a part of TAFE, bought about six grounds from Institute for Financial Management and Research for Rs 40.31 crore. L&T's decision to sell its erstwhile regional headquarters is part of its move to rationalize its real estate holdings. The property spanned across nearly 19 grounds and also had a building of nearly 70,000 square feet.Rajesh Chandramouli

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