The ad-for-equity business, the Brand Capital of publishing group Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd., has hired real-estate advisor Knight Frank India Pvt. Ltd to manage its INR5 billion real estate portfolio.

“This is the first initiative of its kind where we have taken up such asset management and advisory for a large corporate house,” said Amit Goenka, national director of capital transactions at Knight Frank.

The real estate firm will take care of the portfolio; will provide direction on timely exits, maintenance, reporting and analytics, valuation, assistance with leasing, compliance and collections.

Bennett Coleman, the publisher of The Times of India and The Economic Times, initiated in India the concept of equity being swapped for advertising space and time which is also called private treaties.

Other publishers and media businesses follow the model, including HT Media Ltd., publisher of the Mint and the Hindustan Times; Network18 Group, which operates the CNBC-TV18 and CNBC Awaaz TV channels; DB Corp. Ltd., publisher of the Dainik Bhaskar and the Daily News and Analysis; and New Delhi Television Ltd., which runs the NDTV 24x7and NDTV Profit channels.

Brand Capital has 13 real estate firms in its portfolio, including Emaar MGF Land Ltd., Sobha Developers Pvt. Ltd., Nitesh Estates Ltd., Shriram Properties and Lavasa Corp. Ltd., as per the organization’s web site.

“We have some other such orders in the pipeline from large financial institutions, ultra high networks, individuals and family offices,” Goenka said.

Anshuman Magazine, chairman and managing director of CB Richard Ellis India Pvt. Ltd., said, a real estate advisory firm, features this trend to flying real estate prices that have made holdings in land and property an important part of a company’s total business. He also says, “We have been managing real estate portfolios for various stategovernments, however, in the private sector, the trend has picked up recently.”