Real Estate Gurgaon

Gillette India has sold off its entire commercial Gurgaon property in Global Business Park for Rs 72.75 crore. The property has been acquired by Evershine Merchants, an industrial group with multiple business interests including real estate development and construction.

A P&G-spokesperson confirmed to ET, “The company has sold its immovable property, namely its general offices at Global Business Park, Gurgaon, for Rs 72.75 crore.” Sources say Gillette had released an advertisement seeking sale of its commercial property around November last year.

Post its global acquisition by P&G in January 2005, most Gillette employees were relocated to P&G’s Mumbai-based headquarters P&G Plaza, while some employees were relocated to Singapore. Gillette had also managed to end its relationships with its 700-plus distributors (most of who were multi-brand distributors), by offering them exit options.

In India, while P&G and Gillette share operational synergies, the two continue to operate as separate listed legal entities. However, Gillette has switched from operating through a company-owned sales structure to its parent P&G’s distributor-owned sales model.

For the quarter ended March 31, 2007, Gillette India recorded sales of Rs 121.7 crore. Financial results for the quarter were not comparable with the corresponding previous quarter, when the company was in the process of being integrated with P&G.

In 2006, Gillette extended its fiscal year from a 12-month to an 18-month period, and will close the current fiscal on June 30, 2007, in order to realign its financial year with P&G, which follows a July-June fiscal. The Ohio-based P&G had acquired Gillette for $57 billion in January 2005, which made it the biggest household goods company in the world, pushing Unilever to second place.

Source://indiatimes.com

Residential property prices in Gurgaon are seeing a downside but realty funds remain hot on commercial property. UK-based 'Trinity Capital' has invested over 37 million pounds in IT SEZ, reports CNBC-TV18.

Foreign money continues to find its way to Indian real estate. UK-based Trinity Capital, a 250 million pound fund managed by Trikona Capital and listed on the alternative investment market, has acquired a 49.4% stake for over 37 million pounds, in Luxor Cyber City. The two will develop an 8.2 million sq ft Special Economic Zone in Gurgaon.


Of the total space, 4.9 million sq ft will be used for IT and IT enabled services, while 3.3 million sq ft will be developed for supporting infrastructure, such as residential projects, schools, hospitals, and entertainment zones.


There is a demand of about 16 million sq ft of IT and ITES space in Gurgaon, as against a planned supply of only about 8 million sq ft. Trikona Capital expects significant interest from IT and ITES companies for this project and hopes to reap a return of over 25%.


While the project is scheduled to start by the end of this year, it is expected to be completed by June 2012. Besides the land cost, the development value for the project is expected to be approximately 204 million pounds. Over the last one year, Trikona invested more than 150 million pounds in Mumbai and Greater Noida. Trikona is now looking to invest over 500 million pounds a year, for the next four to five years, in Indian real estate and plans to develop 50 million sq ft.

Source://moneycontrol.com

On the day of India’s biggest initial public offering (IPO), Malini Kakkar sat on the second floor of her generously sized house and told me not to be so envious.

Home happens to be DLF Phase I in Gurgaon, where real estate gurgaon magnate K.P. Singh began in the 1980s his makeover of this once faraway village. Today, the Delhi suburb bursts with big business, affluent residents and harried commuters at all hours of the day and night. Kakkar’s family got in early—about 15 years ago—hence my envy as we chatted atop the gold mine.

Besides the government, perhaps no institution has redefined work and home and wealth in the nation’s Capital as much as DLF Group. In many ways, it became a literal metaphor for India Shining, with malls and brands in neon lights, the seemingly endless buildings that angle to the sky, reflecting aspiration such as DLF Infinity Towers and DLF Princeton—punctuated by soaring property values.
Yet, the lights go out all the time.

As DLF and the Haryana Urban Development Authority tussle over responsibility for utilities and investment in infrastructure, residents say they have been caught in the middle. That explains why so many in Gurgaon seem engaged in a love-hate relationship with the DLF banner under which they live and work. Their predicament is one that resonates across India, as private and public institutions draw similar battle lines—Bangalore comes to mind—with homeowners and workers caught in the crossfire.

On the sweltering day I met Kakkar, the power had been out for hours and the maid had summoned her home early to calm a fussy, sweaty, inconsolable toddler.
By the time we met, the market closed to the news that DLF had been 78% subscribed by investors still believing in the India growth story.

But where, Kakkar wanted to know, do power, water, security fit into that tale? Will partial public ownership mean increased scrutiny on delivery of promises? Or perhaps more pressure on the government, too, to live up to its end of deals?

“Do you know how much time I spend trying to get through the day?” Kakkar asked. “Things that could bring me peace of mind, that would allow me to focus on living… it gets worse every summer.”
DLF, in a quiet period because of the IPO, declined to comment. Three numbers for the Haryana authority repeatedly rang unanswered; an email query also yielded no comment.

As I ventured towards DLF Phase II, the sprawling houses looked incidental under the towers that loomed larger, from behemoth call centre operator Convergys to several buildings tacked with corporate logos as a bulletin board for the elite: Nokia, Microsoft, Sapient, Alcatel.

Advertisements and leaflets for the IPO abounded. “DLF: building India,” they blared.
“They have been able to create this brand which is so superior,” says Vivek Bansal, who helps run his family’s coke and coal firm. He lives in Phase II. “When you tell people you live in DLF, it’s much better than others.”
Bansal loves the golf course, hates the growing traffic and fears the blurring between residential and commercial space. Water and power, he concedes, are ubiquitous problems across India so he can forgive DLF—but still, he wants someone to fix the problem. Who, he doesn’t know.

“The current infrastructure has been set up on a population figure of seven lakh,” said Bhawani Shankar Tripathy, general secretary of the Joint Action Forum of Residents’ Associations in Gurgaon. “Already we’re at 15 lakh. Lots of people do feel cheated, some people are happy. But overall, we’re in a mess.”

Onto DLF Phase III, where the visible mess seemed contained to ongoing construction. Puneet Singhal, who lives and works in this third phase, recounts the awful conditions of his last office and rattled off amenities under DLF now: continuous power at work, a gym, walking distance to retail and restaurants.
So impressed is he, Singhal plans to buy a DLF flat next year.

Indeed, DLF’s strong IPO this week reflects a belief in continued growth in real estate. Yet land values have gone up as the services to so many homes remain the same as a pre-liberalized India, perhaps worse. Offices have escaped this fate; as a manager at Avon India, Kakkar says when she has a meeting in a DLF property, she assumes the client is a legitimate one.

Billionaire Kushal Pal Singh plans to use the proceeds of the successful IPO to build more apartments and offices and increase land purchases.

The homeowners who still struggle daily for basic needs and services hope he remembers them. Future projects in a resource-strapped Gurgaon should be ensured an adequate power and water supply exists.

Resource://livemint.com

DLF, which is shortly entering the capital markets for raising around Rs 9,000 crore, is planning to float three private equity funds totalling $8 billion this August. The funds will be syndicated to foreign investors and are likely to close by December.

The three funds will finance the company’s projects including infrastructure development such as roads and highways (a $2 billion fund), super luxury hotels ($1 billion) and two integrated townships of 20,000 acres each ($5 billion) by the DLF-Nakheel joint venture company.

While the IPO proceeds would be utilised for financing DLF projects, the raised capital is not expected to cover the company’s aggressive expansion plans. This is why DLF is looking at the fund route.

“DLF will not have more than a 20-33 per cent equity stake in these funds. The funds will, however, be structured in such a way that around 50 per cent of the profits will go to the company. This is because DLF will run the businesses and will therefore be able to levy a license fee,” said a source close to the development.

While there is a strong possibility of DLF listing these funds overseas, it has ruled out the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) at London as a destination. “It is not remunerative enough in the long term,” added the source.

DLF had disclosed its intentions of foraying into infrastructure development last March, when it forged a 50:50 joint venture with Laing ORourke, a London-based infrastructure-cum-real estate company.

This joint venture plans to construct roads, highways, harbours, tunnels and pipelines in India. Since last year, the two companies have bid for approximately 10 projects.

The Indian realty company is also looking to set up super-luxury hotels at prime locations such as Chanakyapuri in New Delhi, near its Arnold Palmer signature golf course in Gurgaon, Mumbai and Bangalore.

While DLF has a 74:26 joint venture with Hilton International for developing 50 to 75 properties across the country, the super-luxury hotels may not be a part of this agreement.

Nakheel and DLF are looking to invest $10 billion for two integrated townships spread across 40,000 acres in Real estate Gurgaon and South Maharashtra/ Goa.

Nakheel is expected to be one of the foreign investors for the township-related fund.

Source://business-standard.com