Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Feb 18, 2008 ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version |
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Corporate Industry & Economy - Real Estate & Construction Corporate - Outlook
S. Shanker
Mumbai, Feb. 17 With land prices on the rise, large business houses now appear to be increasingly aware of their excess property holdings and the valuations it could fetch in addition to their regular stream of businesses. Hindustan Unilever is one such multi-national that has an extensive property portfolio. HUL has entered the property development business in a big way and is currently developing/selling about six million sq feet across the country. “What business houses hold today are land bought earlier for future expansion of factory, warehouse and marketing office space,” says Mr Ranjikant Agrawal, General Manager-Corporate Real Estate, at HUL. Mr Agrawal says increasing focus is now on strengthening in-house competence in structuring joint ventures, property development and marketing, investment, market research, valuation, portfolio consolidations, relocation management, economic analysis and occupancy strategy. Development projectsRecently, clearance was given for the sale of 773 acres of land owned by VSNL. The company was privatised in 2002 and the Tata group took control of it. However, the surplus land was not part of the deal and the Department of Telecom now has approved a proposal to auction the excess holding, estimated to be worth over Rs 10,000 crore. The Railways is also unlocking large tracts of land for commercial purposes in major cities for development. In Mumbai, the Godrej Group is said to have a huge land bank, only next to the Mumbai Port Trust, is into realty development. Godrej Properties has over 20 million square feet of construction relating to 16 projects with operations covering Pune, Bangalore, Kolkata, and Hyderabad. The Mumbai Port is said to have upwards of 1,500 acres — from Colaba to Wadala. Talent crunchMr Agrawal, who is also the chairman of CoreNet Global India Chapter, says “though the real estate market is looking up, corporates are not getting people with the right skills.” CoreNet is a US-based association for corporate real estate and related professionals. CoreNet Global’s 7000-odd members manage over $1.2 trillion corporate assets of owned and leased office, industrial and other space. CoreNet members include Siemens, CISCO and IBM, besides banks such as Deutsche and Stanchart. The forum offers a real estate course tailored to meet the needs of corporate houses across the world. Best & Crompton sells Ambattur property for Rs 148 cr HUL to sell Chennai property LIC open to building townships More Stories on : Corporate | Real Estate & Construction | Outlook | Hindustan Unilever Ltd
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