Hemamalini Venkatraman, Chennai, January 24, 2009
The Economic Times
The buzz in Chennai realty market is about the trend favouring joint development of projects by those having small and big land parcels. They prefer strategic partnerships to tide over cash crunch.
One such deal that seems to be taking final shape is a 9-ground property of Rattha, a diversified group with interests in exports, infrastructure, SEZ and hospitality.
A bevy of realtors are in the fray to jointly develop the Rattha north-east facing property, at Velachery, near MPL Motors showroom. Given the current market dynamics, the valuation per ground is pegged between Rs 1.80 crore and Rs 2 crore. Though the last big sale that happened in this area fetched Rs 2.5 crore per ground, the company is expecting to realise Rs 27 crore from the deal, according to realty sources.
Ceebros, KGEYes, Akshaya and Vishranthi are among those who are in the race, while some of them are still being approached through real estate consulting firms.
Two of the metro's well-known builders — Vishranti and Akshaya — confirmed that they were among the contenders, while a senior TrueValue Homes official said they too had been approached by Jones Lang LaSalle-Meghraj (JLL-M) last week with a proposal to jointly develop it. The official also said TVH wanted to see the site before taking any decision.
Banking on its expertise of developing properties jointly, Akshaya Homes chairman Chitty Babu said "we are in the race," when contacted by ET on Friday. About 80% of the 142-residential, commercial and IT projects executed by Akshaya have been through the joint-development route. Akshaya has 1.6 million sq ft of ongoing projects.
Rattha promoter Gurmeet Singh, contacted by ET today, said it has decided to drop the idea of sale. A JLL-M official too feigned ignorance about being mandated to do the transaction.
Incidentally, the Rattha group had announced its intention to develop an IT SEZ in Porur on 26 acres for Rs 1,750 crore. In May last, Rajeev Misra global head of Deutsche Bank's credit card business, in his individual capacity had acquired 30% stake in the SEZ for Rs 262 crore.
However, sources in the know said the Rattha group has denotified the SEZ due to downturn and instead looking at a residential project.
Ratthas also forayed into hospitality through a tie-up with Ascott group of Mauritius when the latter upped its stake to 89% from 49% in Rattha Citadines Hitec City Aparthotel.
0 comments:
Post a Comment