Cushman & Wakefield Teams With Nuvama for $361M India Office Fund

Cushman & Wakefield has partnered with Mumbai-based Nuvama Asset Management on a fund management platform aiming to raise INR 30 billion ($361.4 million) to invest in prime office properties across India’s high-growth markets.

Dubbed NCW, the 50:50 JV of Cushman and Nuvama Asset Management, the alternatives arm of Nuvama Wealth Management (formerly Edelweiss Securities), will focus initially on providing investment opportunities to domestic investors in the Indian commercial real estate market — a space traditionally dominated by global investors, the partners said Wednesday in a release.

“As Cushman & Wakefield deepens its presence in the fund management space, we are delighted to partner with Nuvama to help investors capitalise on this opportunity,” said Cushman Asia Pacific CEO Matthew Bouw. “Our global real estate expertise, coupled with Nuvama’s local market knowledge and investment acumen, will create an unrivalled value proposition for investors.”

Cushman regards India as a “standout player” in the office sector regionally and globally, with average demand forecast at 40 million square feet (3.7 million square metres) a year through 2027 and net absorption expected to account for half of all office demand in Asia Pacific.

Primed for Launch

Pending regulatory approval, NCW plans to launch its Prime Offices Fund investing in “Grade A+ offices of the future” across Bengaluru, National Capital Region, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad, with those six markets accounting for more than 70 percent of office leasing activity in the world’s most populous country. The fund will consider investing in new builds and completed and leased assets.

Nuvama Group oversees the equivalent of $34.8 billion in client assets, catering to India’s richest families. Commercial real estate is a direct beneficiary of the nation’s growing prosperity and has attracted high-quality institutional global capital, said group CEO Ashish Kehair.

“We are seeing growing domestic investor interest, which has so far remained an experimental play for most, because of paucity of well-scaled local vehicles in the pre-REIT space,” Kehair said.

Nuvama Asset Management, whose backers include Hong Kong private equity firm PAG, has more than 200,000 active clients and $13 billion under advisory.

Bullish Despite Dip

After flashing 11 percent growth on a quarterly basis in the April-to-June period, India’s gross leasing volume for office space fell 13 percent in the third quarter of 2023, Cushman & Wakefield said in its India Office Market Report.

Despite the drop, fresh leasing in the third quarter accounted for 70 percent of the overall GLV of 15.1 million square feet, signalling an optimistic outlook for the Indian economy and real estate, according to Cushman.

“Besides, a rising rate of employees returning to office, as also seen through the steep rise in residential rents across most cities (especially along the prime office corridors), could be an indication of large-sized deals commencing soon,” the agency said.