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Multinational companies are on a fast-paced expansion drive in Bangalore, taking up prime real estate space in the city and ramping up headcount.
Sources in the real estate and HR sectors said companies such as Robert Bosch Engineering India, Samsung, Ericsson, Honeywell and Volvo IT are expanding rapidly.
CB Richard Ellis India in its recent report said that the first quarter of 2011 witnessed almost six million sq ft of office space being absorbed across the key markets in India. Of this, Bangalore accounts for almost 36 per cent (more than two million sq ft) of total space being absorbed.
“Majority of the lease transactions recorded in Q1 were from companies looking to expand their operations,” said Mr Shrinivas Rao, CEO – Asia Pacific, Vestian Global Workplace Services.
According to data from real estate services firms, Samsung could be signing up 3.5 lakh sq ft, Ericsson – 5 lakh sq ft, Robert Bosch – 3.6 lakh sq ft, and Amazon – 1 lakh sq ft.
In addition, banking and financial services company Wells Fargo will occupy close to 3.5 lakh sq ft in the city.
Mr Vijay Ratnaparkhe, Managing Director, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions, told Business Line that the company would hire people in the engineering, IT and the ITeS segments.
He confirmed that the company has already signed up 1.2-lakh-sq-ft space in Electronics City and is also looking for an additional space of about 2.5 lakh sq ft in Bangalore. The company is planning to hire 800-1,000 engineers in 2011-12.
Robert Bosch had earlier announced that it would invest Rs 300 crore in infrastructure in the next two years.
Hiring spree
HR sources said that MNC hiring, which is now running into thousands, has come full circle after taking a dip in the last few years.
For instance, while Honeywell is adding almost 200 people every month, Ericsson plans to hire 5,000 people in the next couple of years across the country and EMC will hire 2,000 people.
“IT MNCs were earlier outsourcing their work to large Indian services companies. Now they plan to ramp up their services offerings and therefore will increase their hiring by 70-75 per cent. It follows that they will take up more real estate too,” said Mr Rishi Das, CEO, CareerNet, a Bangalore-based hiring firm.
With corporates renewing their expansion plans across most industry sectors, “both demand levels and transaction velocity are expected to remain buoyant in the near to mid term,” added Mr Anshuman Magazine, Managing Director, CB Richards Ellis India.
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