RMZ Corp aims to add $25 billion of assets by 2029 as it expands portfolio

Bengaluru-based realtor RMZ Corp. said it aims to add $25 billion of new assets by 2029 from the current $15 billion as it expands its portfolio into various new segments. It will channel investments into office, mixed-use, industrial & logistics, RMZ Living (ultra-luxury residential offering) and the hospitality sector.

The company also announced the appointment of Arshdeep Sethi as president of RMZ Real Estate, and chief executive officers for its various business verticals: Thirumal Govindraj has been appointed CEO of RMZ Office, Avnish Singh as the CEO of RMZ Mixed Use, while Saandip Kundu as the CEO of RMZ Living. Avinash Sule has been appointed CEO of RMZ Industrial & Logistics as well as RMZ Hospitality.

“This strategic transformation underscores the family’s unwavering commitment to growth and expansion within alternate investment classes. We are deeply focused on investing in high-growth opportunities across geographies that lay the foundations for a sustainable global economy,” said Raj and Manoj Menda, chairs of the supervisory board of RMZ Corp.

RMZ has been in the office space for nearly two decades now, along with retail and residential segments. RMZ spreads across six cities – Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurugram, and Mumbai. RMZ has also marked its footprint in sustainable offices many years back.

“All our buildings are platinum LEED certified. We use high-reflective UV rated glass that gives you 20-25 per cent savings into power requirements. Our lobbies are all solar integrated,” said Govindraj.

RMZ discontinued its residential portfolio around 2014. In the latest diversification and transition effort, RMZ plans to tap into the residential business yet again. The first phase will be mainly focused on Mumbai and Delhi for rolling out standalone projects, addressing the first-home buyers. RMZ Residential plans to create more than 5 condos at a value of $0.6 billion in annualized sales by 2029.

“Post Covid, we have seen the need for up-market residential due to the shortage of homes in India. Over the value change, people have understood the importance of living well, not only from a size but from a functional standpoint,” said Kundu.

RMZ Mixed-Use will be a combination of asset classes – office, hospitality, retail, living, with a focus in Mumbai, NCR-Delhi, and Bengaluru. Singh expects to create a portfolio of about 15 million square feet spread across about four different projects in the next five years. There are two projects that are nearing completion in Q1 of the calendar year 2024.

“We believe that from a 15 million square feet execution plan, we intend to have a gross asset value of about $8 billion by 2029, which is the target of RMZ Mixed-Use. A part of this will be equity from RMZ’s balance sheet which we already embarked upon in deployment. These are city-centric projects where, ideally, transportation and other infrastructure have already developed,” Singh added.

RMZ Industrial & Logistics is an extension to the development capabilities in real estate. The company is looking to build Grade A warehouses for e-commerce and industrial tenants. The target for the segment is set at 62 million square feet at a value of $3 billion by 2029.

“The idea is to build the warehouses ground up across the key cities of India – Bombay, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Pune. We have already started in this vertical and have acquired land, and will hopefully start development in the next quarter or so,” said Sule.

Sule, who will also be heading the hospitality, said that the target for the next 5 years is to build more than 10 hotels across business as well as leisure, valued at $3 billion. RMZ Hospitality will also have a mix of all the other assets. Around a billion and a half have been marked out from the company’s balance sheet for the hospitality sector.