KEPPEL has agreed to acquire a 100 per cent stake in freehold office complex One Paramount in Chennai, India for 22 billion rupees (S$351.1 million), the global asset manager announced on Wednesday (Jul 31).
The Grade A office complex, which was completed in 2022, comprises about 2.4 million square feet of gross leasable area spanning across three office towers, as well as ancillary retail and amenity spaces.
Additionally, One Paramount – which features amenities such as an open-air theatre, a gymnasium and a food court – is located within an established office cluster and well-connected to Chennai’s city centre.
Chief executive officer of real estate at Keppel, Louis Lim, said that India continues to see “strong commercial leasing volumes driven by solid growth fundamentals”.
The company is actively looking to further invest in the Indian market, Lim noted.
Chennai is among India’s top five office markets and has observed rapid growth in the past two decades, research from global real estate consulting company JLL showed.
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At the same time, Keppel looks to tap their sustainable urban renewable capabilities to improve the asset’s energy efficiency and sustainability performance, with the aim of increasing its attractiveness to investors of Keppel’s private funds.
It will focus on boosting the office complex’s energy and water efficiencies, as well as waste management processes. It also looks to “implement digital and smart building technologies at the property”.
In India, Keppel is also developing a commercial tower in Bangalore and is partnering real estate developer Rustomjee in the development of an integrated township in Mumbai.
The company also plans to create a fund to tap the interest of investors in the Indian office market, where One Paramount and the commercial tower in Bangalore could be potential seed assets of the fund.
It said that the acquisition is not expected to have any material impact on the net tangible assets per share or earnings per share of Keppel for the current financial year.
Shares of Keppel were trading 3.9 per cent or S$0.26 lower at S$6.38, as at the mid-day trading break on Thursday.
