Alok Aggarwal Joins Brookfield India REIT Board to Replace Anuj Ranjan

Fresh off a record-breaking fourth-quarter report for Brookfield India REIT, the trust’s manager announced some key personnel moves last week.

The REIT’s CEO, Alok Aggarwal, has joined the manager’s board of directors in the capacity of executive director, according to a filing with India’s stock exchanges. Anuj Ranjan has resigned from the board as he takes on a new London-based role as Brookfield’s CEO of private equity.

The North American asset manager also hired Ankit Gupta as president of Brookfield Properties in India and promoted company veteran Shantanu Chakraborty to chief operating officer.

Former McKinsey partner Gupta “will drive all aspects of business including corporate strategy, growth and business development, finance and provide strategic oversight required in achieving business objectives”, according to the filing.

New Business Cards

Ranjan joined Brookfield in 2006 and has held various positions within the company and its affiliates, including leading the group’s India and Middle East operations. He succeeds Cyrus Madon, who is taking on a new role as executive chairman of private equity, Bloomberg reported.

Chakraborty helped set up Brookfield’s India real estate platform and has played several roles over the past 10 years. Before joining Brookfield he worked at AIG Global Real Estate, property consultancy JLL and architecture firm Mathur & Kapre Associates.

In his new role as COO, Chakraborty will drive asset management and ensure uniformity in processes and protocols, Brookfield said.

Gupta, whose CV includes more than a year as India CEO at OYO Hotels, has two decades of work experience with expertise in real estate, according to the filing. At McKinsey & Co, he rose from an analyst job in 2005 to the partner class of 2016.

“Looking forward to working alongside an incredibly capable and zealous team, and continuing to scale new heights amidst India’s highly promising growth trajectory,” Gupta said in a LinkedIn post last week.

Record-High Leasing

Brookfield India REIT saw its net operating income for the fourth quarter jump 89 percent from the same period a year earlier to reach INR 45.3 billion ($550 million) on record levels of new leasing.

Including renewals, the trust booked 1 million square feet (92,900 square metres) in leases across its portfolio of office parks from October through December, as multinationals and tech giants continued to take up more Grade A office space for their offshore service centres in Asia’s third-largest economy.

The record result for the three-year-old REIT came after it added two assets measuring a total of 6.5 million square feet to its portfolio under a joint venture with Singapore’s GIC in a deal reported last May.

In August, the JV completed its acquisitions of Downtown Powai in Mumbai and Candor TechSpace Sector G1 in Gurugram from the trust’s sponsor, Brookfield Asset Management, with the two properties valued at $1.4 billion.