Citi India puts old Mumbai HQ on the block, deal likely to fetch Rs 300 cr

US multinational financial institution Citigroup has put its old headquarters - Citigroup Centre in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) - on the block and hopes to raise Rs 300 crore the sale, said a CNBC-TV18 report. The move will help Citi monetise tits real estate asset and ensure efficient use of its capital in India.

Citi Centre in Mumbai’s marquee business district Bandra Kurla Complex, had served as Citi India’s headquarters until April last year, when the multinational bank acquired another building to expand its presence in India.

The property has a total office space of about 1 lakh square feet, which would fetch the group Rs 30,000 per sq. ft.

Sources told CNBC-TV18 that Citi has appointed CBRE as consultant to crack this deal.

In April 2012, the foreign lender bought 312,000 sq ft of space in First International Finance Centre (FIFC), a building in BKC, for a record Rs 985 crore. This was the largest commercial deal of the year.

The bank owns six floors in FIFC.

The foreign lender has shifted all its front-end businesses, including consumer banking, investment banking and corporate banking, to FIFC.

The idea is to consolidate its finance and technology operations and have all the employees under one roof.

Citi wants to unlock value and use capital efficiently for its ongoing operations.

Citi Centre is built on a FSI of 1.5, but as per new regulations they will be allowed an FSI of 2. Hence the new occupants will have that much more space to build. However, as per the MMRDA mandate, the premise can only be used for commercial purposes.

Among other marquee commercial realty transactions earlier this week, Cadbury House, an iconic south Mumbai landmark, located opposite Mahalaxmi Temple on Peddar Road, was bought by diamond merchant Dilipkumar Lakhi for close to Rs 350 crore. EvenExpress Towers in Nariman Point, owned by ICICI Ventures and Viveck Goenka, is reportedly being to private equity firm Blackstone and Pune-based Panchshil Realty for about Rs 900 crore.

BKC saw a fall in demand for office space in the September quarter. About 0.1 million sq ft was absorbed during the quarter, compared with about 0.16 million sq ft in the June quarter, realty consultancy firm CBRE said in its India Office market View Q3 2013 report.However, the Citibank property was expected to see good demand due to its sheer size.