 "Apple, Apple inc")
Apple has taken several floors of a commercial building in Bengaluru on lease for 10 years at a monthly rent of Rs 2.44 crore, a report by BusinessLine (BL) said. The area is spread over 116,888 square feet and is located in Prestige Minsk Square built by Prestige Estates Projects.
The iPhone and iPad maker will occupy three floors and portions of two other floors. The payment will commence on July 1.
The report added that the rent will increase by 15 per cent every three years. There is a lock-in period of five years for both parties. Apple can renew the lease for additional terms of five years each.
Apple has also made it a part of the contract that no other competitors including Alphabet, Microsoft, Samsung, Xiaomi, Amazon, Huawei, Netflix, Facebook, Spotify, Baidu and Tencent, be provided space in the building.
Currently, India accounts for 5-7 per cent of Apple's global output. In coming years, it is aiming to expand the share to 25 per cent. Last year, JP Morgan said in a report that Apple will manufacture one in every four of its iPhones in India by 2025.
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Earlier in the month, Apple had signed a 133-month lease for a store in Jio World Drive Mall in Mumbai.
Spread over 20,806 sq ft, the store commands a monthly rent of over Rs 42 lakh, or slightly over Rs 5 crore a year. The rent will increase by 15 per cent after every three years.
The brightly-lit store was "inspired by the iconic Kaali Peeli taxi art unique to Mumbai," Apple said in a statement, referring to the city's decades-old yellow and black taxis.
India has become a big market for the Cupertino, California-based company, which launched an online retail store in the world's second-largest smartphone market in 2020.
Apple has previously faced hurdles in opening physical retail stores in the country, with 2021 launch plans delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Apple products, however, have been sold in India for years on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Walmart Inc's Flipkart, as well as through resellers.
