HUL to announce Mumbai realty buyer soon

Consumer goods major Hindustan Unilever is expected to announce the winners of the ongoing bids for its properties in Bangalore and Mumbai on Tuesday next week.

The bidding, which began in the last week of July, includes some company flats in Mumbai and Bangalore, a company spokesperson said. The sale is being handled by property consultancy firm Cushman and Wakefield. In the past two years the company has sold many properties, including factories at Ghaziabad, Tundla and Calicut. Many of these sales were handled by the real estate consultancy firm Trammell Crow Meghraj.

The sale of the Bangalore properties was the result of the foods business team shifting from the Brookefields headquarters in Bangalore.

"Last year, we announced our plan to move to a new corporate office with the objective of leveraging scale and synergies of integrated business operations,'' the spokesperson said. "As part of this move our foods business team, which was based in Bangalore, shifted to Mumbai. Hence we began the sale of surplus flats."

"As part of the normal business process, we continuously review our assets, including real estate, and on a case-to-case basis we do sell idle property to unlock business value, which at times may involve the services of property consultants. This is an ongoing process," the spokesperson said.

HUL has also recently announced a buyback of shares and will spend about Rs 630 crore in this exercise.

The company is also planning to shift its headquarters to the Mumbai suburb of Andheri in the near future. But company executives have denied any possibility of selling Lever House, its landmark headquarters in South Mumbai.