India's largest real estate investment trust, Embassy Office Parks, plans to raise up to $400 million from investors to meet the demand for office space from global and local giants, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The property group, which manages 45 million square feet of office parks, has appointed Morgan Stanley and Kotak to run the deal, expected to be completed by June. The funds raised will be used to repay debt and acquire land in Chennai. Commercial real estate in India is thriving, with companies leasing record amounts of office space. The firm aims to seek board approval for the deal through a Qualified Institutional Placement. The deal is expected to attract foreign asset managers and mutual funds. The company units have risen 17 per cent in the past year, outperforming India's other listed REITs. The broader real estate space in India, including residential and warehousing, is also seeing growing interest from investors. Embassy's post-tax profit for the December quarter rose six per cent to 2.3 billion rupees, while total income grew 5.3 per cent to 9.8 billion rupees.
