MNC queue to Hyderabad grows longer; JP Morgan & IBM look for office space

HYDERABAD: Financial services giant JP Morgan, US technology and consulting firm IBM and financial services company Wells Fargo are set to acquire large highend office spaces in Telangana's capital city months after Apple, Google and Amazon chose Hyderabad for their second-largest global development centres.

Four persons from global property consultancies and Telangana government in the know of the transactions told ET that JP Morgan and IBM were acquiring highend office space at a property coming up in a special economic zone in the city. Wells Fargo, with presence in Hyderabad for nearly a decade, recently sealed the deal for 0.2 million sq ft and construction of office space is now in progress.

They said a few information technology and financial services firms currently with operations in Bengaluru were also looking to acquire office space in Hyderabad for expansion given the saturation of high-end office space and infrastructure constraints.

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While JP Morgan is on the verge of signing the deal to acquire the office space of close to a million square feet, among the highest by global investors till date, IBM has recently completed the agreement for 0.2 million sq ft for 15 years period at around Rs 110 crore.

Healthcare products giant Novartis with 1.2 million sq ft space and global audit firm Deloitte with nearly one million sq ft space are among the top acquirers of highend office spaces in Hyderabad.

"JP Morgan is looking at strengthening its customer service and back-office support staff capabilities in India and is investing around Rs 500 crore for leasing the office space for nearly ten years in the Phoenix SEZ, a joint venture between Embassy group and Phoenix group, building around 7 million sq ft of office space involving Rs 2,000 crore of investment," said a top official of a property consultancy firm, requesting anonymity. "JP Morgan has presence in Hyderabad for several years with three offices, involving around five-million sq ft space housing around 4,000 staff. It will now shift all its staff and Hyderabad operations to new location, which also enables it with ample space to more than double the headcount," said the same executive. Though JP Morgan declined to comment and IBM did not respond to ET's mail seeking details on the deal, Telangana's IT secretary Jayesh Ranjan, while refusing to divulge details, said a formal announcement would be made shortly.

An executive said JP Morgan had earlier in January acquired close to 0.22 million sq ft office space in Bengaluru's Embassy Golf Links Business on lease. Global consultancy firm Cushman & Wakefield's managing director Veera Babu said many global giants were upbeat about Hyderabad owing to the availability of talent pool.