Singapore's GIC in talks to take stake in Indian property firm owned by DLF

Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC is in talks to buy a 40 per cent stake in a property rental company owned by India's biggest listed real estate developer DLF Ltd, DLF said on Wednesday.

DLF announced back in October 2015 that three shareholders in DLF Cyber City Developers would look to sell their combined 40 per cent stake to reduce conflicts of interest. The three shareholders were also among the founders of DLF Ltd.

As of end-December, DLF Cyber City Developers had nearly 30 million square feet of leased space including information technology parks and malls in the suburbs of New Delhi, according to a company presentation. It expects its revenue for the year to March to be about 27 billion rupees ($404 million).

Neither DLF nor the stake sellers have said how much the sale would fetch, but local media reports have pegged it at as much as 140 billion rupees.

The sellers would reinvest a substantial part of the funds from the stake sale into DLF, the company has said, which will help it reduce its heavy debt load.

In a stock exchange filing late on Wednesday, DLF said its audit committee approved entering into the next phase of talks with an affiliate of GIC, which it did not name, to "negotiate definitive transaction documents and execution of an exclusivity agreement".