GMR To Sell Chennai Technology Park For Rs.150 Crore

GMR Group, a leading infrastructure company plans to sell its Chennai technology park – Cognizant Technology Solutions for Rs.150 Cr.
GMR Group plans to sell its technology park in Chennai,

GMR Group plans to sell its technology park in Chennai,

Leading infrastructure development company GMR Group plans to sell its Chennai technology park. The deal is supposed to be fixed at a price Rs.150 Cr (approximately $30 million). Their Chennai technology park – Cognizant Technology Solutions is located on Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR) one of the prominent IT hubs of the city.

Bangalore-based Global Tech Park and a leading chartered accountant in the South are the two strong contenders who have expressed their interest in the project. Bangalore-based Global Tech Park; though leading the race, may have to face stiff competition from the prominent CA.

OMR-located GMR Varalakshmi Tech Park was entirely leased out to Cognizant Group. The total built-up area of the technology park is over 400,000- sq. ft. One of the subsidiary firms of GMR Group own the tech park.

GMR Group is an infrastructure conglomerate which has vast land banks in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. While a senior spokesperson of GMR Group refused to comment on the issue, Global Technology Park promoter Satish Chandra could not be contacted for the comment.

GMR plans to sell its tech park in Chennai for a sum of Rs.150 Cr.

GMR plans to sell its tech park in Chennai for a sum of Rs.150 Cr.

Global investment firm and the ultra-high net worth CA are vigorously after the deal. Both of the contenders are sure of their returns in the investment. The investment in the park assures easy returns as the park is highly income generating without any involvement of risk-factor. The proposed buyers expect to gain an average returns by 12% per annum.

Blackstone Group, prominent private equity firm, has invested almost $1 billion in the real estate market of India in the last three years. Indian market also saw huge investments by Xander, Mapletree and many others.

These foreign investors have shown interest in Bangalore, Chennai and Gurgaon– areas where real estate grows faster. Such deals are considered as defensive in the real estate market which is said-to-be sluggish these days.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Invests in Realty Sector

The US-based company, which has large offshore presence in India, has revised its investment plan to a total of $700 million in real estate from 2011 through 2015. Cognizant Technology Solutions has increased its real estate infrastructure expansion in India by nearly $200 million.

This is to expand its campuses in India by an additional 10.5 million sq ft. This expanded programme includes expenditure on land acquisition, facilities construction and furnishings to build new company-owned IT development and delivery centres in regions primarily designated as Special Economic Zones in India.

In February 2011, the company announced $500 million of investment in its India infrastructure expansion through the end of 2014. However, at the beginning of calendar 2012, the company decided to expand its planning horizon for the India real estate programme to 2015 and beyond, said a company spokesperson. For the first quarter ended March 2012, Cognizant finished with $2.5 billion of cash and short-term investments. It spent around $60.5 million for capital expenditures during the quarter. “During 2012, we expect our capital expenditure to total approximately $370 million,” Ms Karen McLoughlin, Chief Financial Officer, Cognizant, told analysts while discussing the company’s financial results.

Cognizant ended the March quarter with around 1, 40,500 employees globally. Of this, nearly 105,000 are in employed in its India centres.