Mumbai: Realty firm Mahindra Lifespaces has partnered with Japanese firm Sumitomo Corporation to set up an industrial park in Tamil Nadu with an investment of Rs 375 crore.
The Mumbai-based firm's subsidiary Mahindra World City Developers has entered into a 60:40 joint venture to form a company 'Mahindra Industrial Park Chennai' that will develop the park in north Chennai, which would entail an investment of Rs 375 crore.
"This is our maiden partnership with Sumitomo in this space. Our joint venture will certainly create an industrial park which will attract companies from across the world to set up their facilities in enabling environment," Mahindra Lifespaces Managing Director and CEO Anita Arjundas told reporters here.
The realty firm has proposed to develop an industrial park in the region on 700 acre of land, which will be developed in phases.
"For the first phase, we have planned to develop a park on 300 acre along with Sumitomo Corporation.
We have already acquired around 550 acre out of the proposed 700 acre," she said.
Both the companies will jointly be investing around Rs 375 crore with combination of debt and equity, which is likely to be equal.
"We have already invested significantly in acquiring the land. Mahindra Lifespaces will further invest in the equity as well as for marketing the project. We have already prepared the master plan and we will now seek approvals for the same. We expect to launch the project by the year 2016-17," Arjundas said.
Commenting on the JV, Sumitomo Corporation India Chairman and Managing Director Masahiro Narikiyo said, "We see the partnership as a stepping stone towards more opportunities in this space. We would like to see the relationship with the Mahindra Group extend to other areas where there are synergies between the two groups."
Mahindra World City, Chennai is a JV between Mahindra Lifespaces and Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) spanning over 1500 acre and comprises product specific Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and a domestic tariff area (DTA), which houses more than 64 blue chip companies.
MWC Chennai has garnered a cumulative investment of Rs 5000 crore, generated cumulative exports of Rs 34,000 crore and employment for 37,000 people since its establishment. It also offers residential and social infrastructure as a part of the integrated ecosystem.
"This will be our first venture in the industrial park space in India. Tamil Nadu is one of the most preferred destinations for Japanese investors in India, with over 557 Japanese companies having already setup their facilities in the state. We see a lot of potential for this venture attracting investments of the right pedigree, and being an extremely successful venture," Sumitomo's General Manager for overseas industrial park department said.
Mahindra also has a similar park in Jaipur spread over 3000 acre.
