Actis completes office exit in India, its second in Asia during Covid-19 pandemic
Actis, a leading global investor in sustainable infrastructure, announced today that it has completed the sale of its interest in IT4, a new generation office property in Mumbai, to longstanding operating partner, Tata Realty and Infrastructure Limited (Tata Realty) following a competitive process. The asset is part of a joint venture between Tata Realty and Actis that invests in and develops new generation offices in established commercial markets across India’s major cities.
The IT4 exit is the second office exit by Actis during the Covid-19 pandemic, following in the footsteps of another successful exit Actis completed last year in Seoul, Korea. Both the exits have delivered strong returns and enforce Actis’ strategy of working with high quality partners, in bringing new generation office assets at competitive prices to the market.
During a period of five years, Actis actively supplemented Tata Realty’s efforts in carrying out a programme of substantial asset upgrade works and efficiency-based pricing to enhance the asset’s appeal ahead of major lease renewals and to increase its net income. Despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, IT4 remains a highly attractive Grade A office space that has seen not only new tenants making long term commitments to the property, but also existing tenants extending their leases, with a healthy and stable occupancy at around 90%.
Ashish Singh, Partner in the Asia Real Estate team at Actis commented: “Actis’ joint venture with Tata Realty has delivered its first successful exit at a time of significant short term disruption but where strong long term fundamentals in the Indian office market still exist. With the right partner quality and strategy in the mix, supported by our active asset management approach, we look forward to further successes in our joint venture.”
On successful closure of the Transaction, Mr. Sanjay Dutt, MD & CEO, TRIL said, “We remain steadfast in our commitment to strengthen our commercial portfolio, this transaction is a testament to our confidence in the Indian commercial real estate sector. This deal is in line with our endeavour and expansion strategy for our commercial portfolio.”
About the partnership, Mr. Dutt further added, “TRIL & Actis have a long standing platform level partnership with investments across multiple assets and it has been a mutually enriching experience. With this successful exit, TRIL has demonstrated its capability to create shareholder value for pre-eminent investor partners.”