 "An Amazon representative shows off the 3D map features of the company's new Fire smartphone at the company's campus in Seattle, Washington")
Amazon, the Seattle-headquartered e-commerce giant, has signed two high-profile office space deals in India during the April to June quarter (Q1), in sync with its rush to invest in the country.
Amazon founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos recently announced an investment of $3 billion. In 2014, the company made a commitment for $2-billion investment.
The company has taken two large office spaces in Gurgaon and Hyderabad, said a source.
In Gurgaon, the e-commerce company has leased 90,000 sq ft at Ambience Corporate Tower II, NH-8, where it is expected to pay rent of about Rs 80 per sq ft per month, or Rs 8.64 crore annually.
The company has also taken 350,000 sq ft at Mindspace in Madhapur, Hyderabad. For this space, it is expected to pay Rs 48 per sq ft per month, or Rs 20 crore a year, according to Propstak, a commercial data analytics firm.
The new leases follow an older one: 30,000 sq ft at the Bandra Kurla Complex area in Mumbai earlier this year for corporate headquarters.
Last year, Amazon leased a 274,204 sq ft space in Bengaluru, at the Bagmane Tech Park and in 2015, it took a lease of 195,551 sq ft at Constellation Business Park in the same city, Propstak said.
According to the source, Amazon is expected to use the newly leased properties for its technology support and development work. Amazon did not respond to the mail on the subject.
“Outsourcing, logistics and supply chain management form the core of ecommerce and Amazon is at the forefront of this industry. Consequently, this leads to increased need for real estate,” said Raja Seetharaman, director, Propstack.
Added Ashok Kumar, managing director, Gennex Partners, a commercial realty services firm: “They are growing very large in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, and Mumbai. Amazon is investing huge to retain leadership in India. It shall put a tough fight for local competitors.”
To grow fast in the country and take on rivals such as Flipkart and Snapdeal, it announced a $2-billion investment in 2014 and $3 billion in 2016 as it bets big on the $14-billion e-retail space in the country, projected to grow to $55 billion by 2018.
“Our Amazon.in team is surpassing even our most ambitious planned milestones, and I’m pleased to announce today that we’ll invest an additional $3 billion on top of the $2 billion that we announced in 2014, bringing our total investment in India to over $5 billion,” Bezos said after announcing India plans recently.
According to Colliers International, the country’s office market remained strong in Q2 2016 with 10.4 million sq ft of office absorption totaling to about 19.2 million sq ft till July 14 this year.
The office absorption recorded an 18 per cent increase quarter on quarter, with Bengaluru being the top contributor with a 30 per cent share, followed by the National Capital Region (21), Hyderabad (20), Chennai (15), Mumbai (8), Pune (5) and Kolkata (1).
