D-Mart’s Radhakishan Damani set to acquire 8-acre Thane plot from Mondelez

MUMBAI: Radhakishan Damani, billionaire investor and founding father of DMart, is set to acquire an 8-acre land parcel in Thane from Mondelez India, previously Cadbury India, for almost Rs 250 crore, mentioned three individuals with direct data of the event.

The plot is positioned at Pokharan Road 1, a key locality of Thane, and will likely be bought by his household workplace, they mentioned. The plot is estimated to have a complete growth potential of almost 1 million sq ft given present growth laws.

“The deal is at a fairly advanced stage and is expected to be concluded anytime soon,” mentioned one of many individuals. “The plot is likely to see development of a mixed-use project with some high-street retail given its proximity to an upcoming metro station, while the balance is residential.”

Damani’s household workplace is alleged to be at the moment enterprise due diligence. It couldn’t be ascertained if he’s planning to develop the plot on his personal or with a developer. According to actual property consultants, present property costs within the neighborhood are at Rs 10,000-12,000 per sq ft.

“We are monetising some land in excess of our needs in Thane. We will be unable to comment any further,” a Mondelez India spokesperson advised ET. Damani didn’t reply to queries. Transaction advisor CBRE South Asia declined to remark.

In the backdrop of the rising choice for alliances and joint growth of land holdings, this will likely be one of many few cases of an outright buy in current occasions at this scale. Over the previous few years, a number of realty builders have reworked their enterprise methods to concentrate on asset-light fashions, resembling joint growth, to scale back the upfront capital price and deal with liquidity strain.

A Mumbai-based realty developer had proven curiosity in buying the land parcel final 12 months, however the deal couldn’t be concluded. In the previous couple of years, a number of multinational corporations resembling Mondelez have been monetising non-core belongings, primarily actual property, by promoting them off.

In one of many largest actual property transactions in 2013, Mondelez India bought Mumbai landmark Cadbury House for about Rs 350 crore to diamond dealer Dilipkumar Lakhi.

With a number of infrastructure initiatives aimed toward bettering connectivity, realty builders have been venturing into the micro-market of Thane. Oberoi Realty not too long ago entered into an settlement to purchase 60 acres from GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals within the space for Rs 555 crore.

In 2019, Singapore-based international funding agency Xander Group’s retail arm Virtuous Retail South Asia (VRSA) acquired about 20 acres in Thane from textile agency Raymond for over Rs 710 crore.

Godrej Properties acquired a 4-acre parcel on Thane’s Ghodbunder Road to develop a residential undertaking in September 2018.