BNP Paribas forays into realty space

French Bank's Subsidiary Atisreal To Buy Majority Stake In Bangalore Co's Consultancy Business

Boby Kurian & Rajesh Unnikrishnan
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E UROPEAN financial powerhouse BNP Paribas is foraying into Indian real estate brokerage and consultancy space, making it probably the first international banking group to offer such services in the country. The French bank's real estate services subsidiary, Atisreal, is acquiring more than 50% stake in the consultancy business of Bangalore-based Redwoods Projects.
Redwoods is a two-year-old real estate development and services start-up floated by a team led by former Jones Lang LaSalle senior executive Anuj Nautiyal. The domestic partner will keep a minority stake in the joint venture company, which will be renamed Atisreal Redwoods. The financial details of the transaction were not available immediately.
The new entity is expected to offer consultancy services in real estate investment and related fields, including debt and equity syndications besides brokerage in commercial and retail space. The joint venture will kick off with the existing corporate and developer client base of Redwoods, while adding the global clientele of BNP Paribas looking to invest in India.
This is part of an expansion drive by Atisreal Europe's biggest commercial real estate serv-ices group into emerging markets. In the past quarter, the BNP Paribas subsidiary has entered into Russia, Ukraine, Bahrain, Dubai and Romania, apart from India, either through acquisitions or alliances. It offers services to clients through 65 offices worldwide, employing 2,500 professionals.
"The joint venture deal has been inked. It will combine BNP Paribas' real estate banking expertise with our consultancy services," Mr Nautiyal, who is MD & CEO of Atisreal Redwoods, confirmed to ET. He added that Atisreal will take a majority stake in the demerged consultancy services arm of Redwoods Projects, which will continue with real estate development business independently.

The French giant is stepping into real estate services domain at a time when industry experts are predicting a market correction with prices dropping 20% to 2 5 % across segments in the next six to eight months, possibly ushering in changes in the realty services domain.
Consolidation has been gaining momentum among real estate service providers more specifically, the international property consultants when Meghraj entered into a joint venture with Tram-mell Crow and later Trammell Crow Meghraj merged withJones Lang LaSalle. Similarly, Colliers Jardine merged with CB Richard Ellis.
In fact, Atisreal itself has been at the centre of consolidation moves. It acquired UK's Hill Woolhouse in a bid to consolidate in western Europe. Recently, leading property consultancy firm DTZ has acquired UK-based retail consultancy firm Donaldsons for £60 million. Donaldsons has a large shopping centre management team in the UK and has built up ties in Europe with a network of partnerships.
Similarly, Cushman & Wakefield acquired two leading specialist hotel consultancies Atrium Hospitality Solutions and Hospitality Strategies to launch Cushman & Wakefield Hospitality, Asia Pacific. Cushman & Wakefield also acquired real estate investment banking specialist Sonnenblick Goldman.