BENGALURU (INDIA): Cerestra Advisors Ltd, a real estate-focused private equity firm, has bought Alexandria Knowledge Park at Genome Valley in Hyderabad for Rs 400 crore as it plans to build an office portfolio focused on R&D clients. Alexandria Knowledge Park, which counts tenants such as Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, was previously owned by New York-based Alexandria Real Estate Equities, the world’s largest office builder of science and technology campuses.
The deal was triggered by Alexandria’s move to exit India. Singapore-based asset manager Lighthouse Canton is backing Cerestra in acquiring the asset. The Hyderabad park has leased office space of 500,000 sqft but its total build up potential is far higher at 2.5 million sqft.
Other companies in the park include Swiss biotechnology company Lonza, Bharat Biotech. Biologocal E, Vimta, AMRI and US-based Vitane Pharma among others. The park accommodates advance research and development infrastructure in multi-tenanted research buildings, incubation facilities, build-to-suit blocks and industrial plots. Alexandria Innovation Center is an incubator for startup companies.
When contacted, Cerestra Advisors declined to comment.
Cerestra, which was bought by London-based asset manager The Capital Partnership from Religare Global Asset Management in August, is currently setting up two separate investment verticals in the rent yielding real estate space; an education infra fund which is acquiring school buildings and a second one dedicated to a portfolio of office space catering to R&D and industrial work spaces. Cerestra was co-founded by Jasmeet Chhabrra and Vishal Goel, who incidentally headed Alexandria’s Indian operations previously.
Hyderabad’s Genome Valley is India’s largest biotech cluster with more than 200 life science companies. With about 33% of global vaccine production coming from Hyderabad, the city is also known as the country’s bulk drug capital. Prior to its exit plans, the company was also supposed to build a biotechnology park in Bengaluru for about Rs 500 crore spread over 53 acres in Electronic City on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis but the project never really took off.
Source: Press Trust of India