Ivanhoe Cambridge, the real estate subsidiary of Canada’s second-largest pension fund CDPQ, and Bengaluru-based Embassy Group have shelved their joint office development platform planned with a corpus of $500 million (Rs 3,650 crore with exchange rates in early 2021).
Recently, Ivanhoe Cambridge and Singaporean investor Mapletree announced a Rs 15,400-crore partnership to develop, own and operate technology-focused office spaces in the country. The two have identified strategic properties and projects to meet this objective.
“We will do asset-level deals and not a platform for office spaces,” said Aditya Virwani, chief operating officer at Embassy Group. Though Virwani did not elaborate on the reason, the sources said that Ivanhoe was not happy with the tax structures in the proposed alternative investment fund to be floated for the venture.
When contacted, Chanakya Chakravarti, Managing Director, India, Asia-Pacific, said that they shelved the platform with Embassy for mutually agreed business reasons. “Our decision is by no means related to tax efficiencies,” he added.