News: Tishman Speyer investing in India, China

(RTR 26/06/2006) New York - U.S. real estate developer and investor Tishman Speyer is moving aggressively to invest in India and has similar plans to be a player in China, a top executive with the company said on Monday.

"India is probably the most interesting place in the world right now," Robert Speyer, senior managing director, said at the Reuters Real Estate Summit in New York.

Tishman Speyer, which owns the New York Times Building and Rockefeller Center, and the private venture arm of India's ICICI Banking Corp. announced a joint venture in January to invest more than $1 billion in India over the next three to five years.

Meanwhile, in China, Tishman Speyer is launching a business in Shanghai that will develop commercial and residential property there, in Beijing and other large secondary cities.

The investments in India will focus on both office and residential properties, Speyer said.

"So many of the companies we do business with (in the United States) and in Europe are opening businesses in India, and there is an incredible shortage of quality real estate there," he said.

The venture is based in Bangalore and is also looking at Bombay, but deals in half a dozen other major Indian cities are being scouted as well, Speyer said.

In China, Tishman Speyer is taking a different approach, setting up a partnership with another U.S. firm rather than a local partner, he said.

"We want to be able to service our clients wherever they are in major cities around the world, so for us being in China is a very necessary ingredient of our business," said Speyer, citing similar motivation for entering China as India.

He declined to discuss whether the company is raising a fund for China as it has with India. "Unfortunately, because of securities law, we can't talk about private funds that are in formation," Speyer said.

He said Tishman Speyer is aggressively hiring workers in both India and China. Indian employees also will work in the company's U.S. and European operations, he said.