Canada’s Brookfield likely to buy Unitech arm Candor

Canada-based global real estate company Brookfield has offered to acquire Candor Investments, a fully-owned subsidiary of Unitech Corporate Parks Plc (UCP), which owns stakes in real estate projects in the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) and Kolkata.

Unitech Ltd said in Bangalore on Thursday that the London listed but India-focused UCP is in talks with an investor for selling Candor Investments Ltd, the holding company for its 60 per cent interest in six real estate projects.

According to an exclusivity agreement signed between Brookfield and UCP, an entity listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), the transaction is to be concluded in 45 days.

Candor Investments, through its subsidiaries, holds a 60-per cent stake in six properties, valued at Rs 10,000 crore - two in Gurgaon, three in Noida and one in Kolkata - while the Unitech group owns rest of the equity.

UCP had raised about £360 million (Rs3,597 crore) in December 2006 through an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange, mainly to invest in these six projects. In a statement issued on Thursday, UCP said its board was approached by a third party,

UCP also said that separate discussions for sale of one of its special economic zones (SEZs) in Gurgaon, announced in December last year, had been suspended.

The company had held talks with private equity funds Blackstone and the government of Singapore Investment Corporation for this. However, the UCP statement added there was no certainty that the current talks would lead to a transaction, or what could be the timing or terms of an agreement.