‘Bangalore has a lot of job opportunities’

Expatriates love Bangalore for its cosmopolitan lifestyle, salubrious environment, food and people. Christopher Willcocks, an expat from the UK, shares his experiences here.

Christopher Willcocks from the UK came to Bangalore for a three-week holiday — but now, he calls this place a home away from home. The City mesmerised him so much that he decided to stay back. “The first flight that I took in my life out of Europe was to India. My friend invited me here to see what a great country it is. I realise now how true he is. I’ve made such good friends here — I’ve never met people like that back home in London,” he says.

He adds that Bangalore has a lot of career options that suit expatriates. “I work here as a cross-cultural communication trainer for the BPO sector. I train people to think from the UK perspective; I cannot imagine doing this job anywhere else. Bangalore has a lot of job opportunities,” he states.

Going down memory lane, Christopher mentions that he misses the charm that the City had a few years ago. “I came to Bangalore seven years ago. Back then, Bangalore had a good nightlife. It was not this crowded. It was calm and serene. In fact, it reminded me of a small city in England. But now, Bangalore is growing rapidly. It looks like a metropolis,” he says.

Most expatriates do face their own share of problems when they come to the City. For Christopher, it was the language issue.

“Since I have stayed in Bangalore for over seven years, many people criticise me for not learning Kannada. I consciously make an effort to speak in the regional language. But the problem is that in Bangalore, very few people speak in Kannada. I try to talk to an autorickshaw driver, and he wants to practice his English on me. He says, ‘My children go to an English-medium school, I want to learn English to speak with them’. Everyone converses with me in English. In such a situation, learning a language becomes difficult,” he says.

Indian cuisine is not just popular in India but across the world. Christopher points out, “I used to love Indian food, even when I was in England. The UK has the largest number of chains of Indian cuisine in the West. Indian food is very popular there. I love the simplicity that is present in Indian dishes, especially those from South India. My favourites are rice, rasam and dal.”

Adding to that, he says, “My partner is from the North-East. She enjoys different Assamese delicacies. The variety of food found in India is unbelievable!”

Ask him if he dislikes anything about Bangalore, and he says, “Garbage is a big problem here. The City is great and the people are friendly — so, if the garbage is managed properly, it will have everything in place to match international standards.” Christopher’s passion has always been music and in Bangalore, he has got a chance to pursue it.

“In 2006, I got together with a bunch of guys and formed a band called ‘Usual Suspects’. We were one of the first Bangalore bands to play punk rock. Currently, I am working on a project called ‘Crash TV’,” says Christopher.

Indian movies have always got worldwide attention. Christopher says, “Though I do not understand the language, I watched ‘Rock On!’ and enjoyed it. Another movie I love is Taare Zameen Par — I cried watching that film. Indian movies portray emotions elegantly.”

To sum up, Christopher says, “I love this City and its people. They have welcomed me here!”

Sun-Apollo to invest up to $50 mn in Sobha Developers

Private equity firm Sun-Apollo will invest up to $50 million in projects developed by Bangalore based real estate company Sobha Developers sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. 

The investment will be on a project basis, and Sun-Apollo will invest 20-25 percent of its commitment in the first project, one of the sources said. Executives at Sobha and Sun-Apollo could not immediately be reached for comment. 

Sobha, based in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, has built more than 51 million square feet of homes and offices since its inception in 1995. 

Sun-Apollo, a joint venture between India's Sun Group, controlled by the Khemka family, and U.S.-based AREA Property Partners, formerly called Apollo Real Estate Advisors, raised more than $600 million in 2006 to invest in real estate projects in India. 

In December 2011, it invested about 450 million rupees ($8.5 million) in a subsidiary of Mumbai-based Godrej PropertiesBSE 2.36 % . 

Private equity investments in real estate fell 44 percent in the September quarter to $394 million from $726 million a year earlier, according to Venture Intelligence, an industry data tracker.

PE firm Blackstone inks India’s biggest commercial real estate acquisition deal

US private equity firm Blackstone has inked India's biggest commercial real estate acquisition deal, which will give it 50% stake in a Bangalore builder-owned portfolio of three business parks for $200 million (over Rs 1,000 crore).

The deal beats Citigroup's acquisition of a Mumbai office building earlier this year for Rs 985 crore, which was bigger than Maple Tree's Rs 800-crore buyout of 2 million sq ft from Assetz Global Technology Park and Baring PE Partners' Rs 500-crore investment in RMZ Corp for 6 million sq ft space.

A person familiar with the matter told ET that Blackstone, which invests in realty firms, has bought stake in an SPV comprising three commercial properties totalling over 10 million sq ft — Embassy Golf link and Manyata Embassy Business Park in Bangalore and Embassy Tech Zone in Pune.

"Blackstone and Embassy Property Developments signed the transaction earlier this month. The deal was followed by the October 4 order of the Competition Commission of India, which gave clearance for the transaction," said the person, who did not wish to be named. "It is an equity-level investment, where a holding company was floated with three commercial assets under it. However, the deal finally cascaded down to the SPV level."

A detailed email sent to Embassy did not elicit a response while Blackstone in an email reply said, "We would not like to comment on this story. Our communication protocol does not allow us to speak on market speculation."

Experts said the deal is in line with this year's trend. "Given the uncertainties in political and economic environment, investors are risk-averse and are investing in pre-leased commercial assets. Around 70% of the transaction closed this year are in pre-leased assets," says Rajeev Bairathi, director-investment advisory at DTZ India.

As per the transaction, Blackstone will get compulsorily convertible debentures of Pune Dynasty Projects (PDP), which is currently into the development of the non-SEZ part of Embassy TechZone in Pune.

Once converted, Blackstone will hold 50% stake in the SPV. Additionally, Embassy, which owns 51% stake in PDP, will acquire 49% from Alta Vista, a Mauritius-based financial institution, making it a subsidiary of Embassy Property Developments (EPD).

"Post this acquisition, EPD will transfer its shareholding of 35.77%, 51.01% and 48.75% in the three SPVs in Pune and Bangalore that are developing business parks along with some other assets in the form of advance paid for the purchase of land and for acquiring joint development rights to PDP.

Herein after, all the three SPVs will become the investee company," said a CCI order. Embassy Golf link is a 5-million-sqft, or 65-acre, business park while Manyata Embassy Business Park is a 100-acre integrated mixed-use development business park, which has a developable area of 18.29 million sq ft.

Embassy TechZone in Pune is spread over 70 acre with 52 acre designated for a special economic zone. Some of Embassy's big tenants at its commercial properties in Bangalore and Pune include IBM, Capgemini, Mercedes Benz, Atos Origin and Accenture. "Blackstone and Embassy will jointly control and manage the entity in which the fund has invested. The deal has very complicated structure with multiple cross-holdings. Embassy will be responsible for completion of the project," the person said.

Bangalore property market surpasses Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai with 140 per cent growth

Bangalore has outpaced bigger property markets such as Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai with 140% growth in the quarter to June over the year-ago period, even as sales in most other cities stagnated or even plummeted.

In the first quarter of the current fiscal, 15.58 million sq ft of residential space was sold in the city, giving it a total market share of 13.9%, property research firm PropEquity said. In comparison, property sales in Mumbai Metropolitan Region and National Capital region fell by 60% and 57%, at 15.98 mn sq ft and 28.86 mn sq ft, respectively. The trend continued into the second quarter.

"Bangalore is witnessing higher offtake compared to other bigger realty markets in the country despite challenging times," said Pirojsha Godrej, managing director and chief executive officer of Godrej PropertiesBSE 0.74 %, which is in the process of launching projects totalling 4 million sq ft over the next few months.

Experts say Bangalore's real estate market is growing due to a combination of factors such as a higher percentage of end users among buyers than in the other cities and a relatively moderate price escalation.

In 2011-12, the southern cities, including Bangalore, contributed nearly 40% to the country's home loan disbursals of Rs 1.95 lakh crore. Since April, LIC Housing FinanceBSE 0.02 % garnered around 14.5% of the total home loan business from the Bangalore region, compared with 12% in the corresponding period last year.

"Bangalore property market is leading both in terms of loan disbursement and sanction," said VK Sharma, CEO of LIC Housing Finance.

Delhi-NCR and Mumbai witnessed a sharp drop of over 40% in property sales in 2012 compared with the previous year, mainly due to multiple increases in home loan rates and inflated property prices. The southern cities, including Bangalore, did not see such a sharp downturn partly due to the turnaround in the IT sector. 

Sentiment was bearish due to worries about macroeconomic growth trickling down to job security and increments. But policy level changes will result in improvement in sentiments and the pent-up demand is likely to be converted hereon," said Niranjan Hiranandani, managing director of Hiranandani Group.

According to the Confederation of Real Estate Association of India (CREDAI), new launches in the bigger markets of Mumbai and Delhi have fallen by 50% and 57%, respectively. "Lack of project approvals has restricted new property supply. Additionally, contribution requirement from home loan seekers has gone up to 40-45% as loans are now being disbursed excluding stamp duty, registration and other taxes , thus impacting sales," said Lalit Kumar Jain, president, CREDAI.

"NCR has seen a drop in home sales because work in Noida extension was stalled for many months. The Noida region was also impacted because of elections in Uttar Pradesh," said Sameer Jasuja, chief executive officer at PropEquity.

Britannia closes in on deal to sell its Bangalore head office land

Britannia Industries, the publicly-held biscuits and dairy major, may be closing in on a deal to sell its six-acre prime real estate land in Bangalore for about Rs 550 crore by the year-end. The land, which houses Britannia’s corporate head-office and residential quarters, has been on the block since December 2011, after Britannia confirmed that it is exploring options to monetise this asset.

Sources say that the asking price of this property has appreciated by a over 20 per cent to Rs 550 crore during the past year, which is why the deal could not be closed before.

According to sources, many property developers and few other corporate houses have looked at how this prime land can be leveraged.

“Piramal Group, Bharti-Walmart are among the few prominent players who have explored this land parcel,” two real estate consultants in the know told Business Standard. While Britannia maintained that they stand by their earlier statement about considering options to leverage this land asset, the company has denied any negotiations with Bharti-Walmart.

Many developers are eyeing the land, which is on the Old Airport Road connecting the central business district to the technology hub of Whitefield, for commercial and retail development. There are not many integrated retail plays in that part of the town.

Bombay Realty, the realty arm of the Wadia Group, which owns Britannia Industries, is also understood to be exploring ways on how they can work on this parcel. This is the second time that Britannia is trying to unlock this land after its attempt in 2008 fell through.

Real estate consultants indicate that about 1 million sq. ft can be developed on this property where the rental ranges between Rs 60 and 80 per sq. ft.

Over the past two years, Britannia has been battling inflation in its key ingredients and has been effectively creaming away costs. The company’s consolidated debt stands at a little over Rs 600 crore. For the first quarter of FY13, Britannia posted an 18.4 per cent increase in net profit to Rs 46.5 crore on a revenue of Rs 1,348 crore, which grew by 12 per cent.

Britannia Industries’ stock gained 1 per cent to close at Rs 477.70 per share on the National Stock Exchange on Thursday.

TE Connectivity to employ 3,000 in B’lore

Connectivity solutions provider TE Connectivity on Thursday said it will provide direct and indirect employment to 2,000-3,000 people in their upcoming manufacturing facility in Bangalore.

The company will invest close to Rs 250 crore to build a 2,80,000 sq ft manufacturing facility at the Aerospace Park, Yelahanka and would be operational by 2014. The facility would create jobs in the areas of assembly, packaging, molding, stapling, tooling machine components, copper wire, optical fibre and cable processes.

“The new facility in Bangalore will become the design, manufacturing centre for TE in India, serving global and Indian customers,” TE Connectivity India President V Raja said. At present, the company has more than 4,500 employees in its eight facilities in India, five in Bangalore, two in Pune and one in Kochi.

It clocked Rs 1,400 crore sales last fiscal ended September 2011 and, Raja said that the company targets $1 billion in sales in the next five years. TE’s manufacturing plants in Shirwal and Wagholi in Pune will be expanded over the next three years with the key focus of expanding India operations by increased local product development.

Technicolor And Rockstar Games Establish Dedicated Games Unit

Technicolor has established a new high-end game art and animation team dedicated to working with Rockstar Games.

The Rockstar Games dedicated unit leverages a segment of Technicolor’s highly experienced team of game artists, animators and state-of-the-art technology infrastructure at its Bangalore, India-based digital production studio. Technicolor India has already worked on several major Rockstar titles including Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire and Max Payne 3.

"This partnership reinforces Technicolor’s strong commitment and strategy to growing its art and animation business for the video game industry and we are proud to work with cutting edge industry leaders like Rockstar Games," said Tim Sarnoff, President of Technicolor Digital Productions.

"Technicolor were a fantastic resource for us during the development of Max Payne 3," said Jeronimo Barrera, VP of Development at Rockstar Games. "We’re looking forward to building the partnership on future projects."

Technicolor Digital Productions produces high-quality CG animation for television, direct-to-video, commercials, video games and location-based entertainment through its industry leading production facility in Bangalore, India. Major clients include DreamWorks Animation, Electronic Arts, Mattel, Nickelodeon, Rockstar Games, Sony Computer Entertainment America, and Square Enix.