CapitaLand Investment to start an operation in India’s GIFT City

CAPITALAND Investment will soon start operating in India’s GIFT International Financial Services Centre, according to people familiar with the matter, helping serve its global clients from the special economic zone in Gujarat.  

The investment management arm of CapitaLand Group, backed by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, has obtained a licence from the International Financial Services Centres Authority, or IFSCA, to run a fund management company at the country’s newest financial hub, said the people, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. 

This adds to India’s push to develop GIFT City – or Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, as a rival to financial hubs in Singapore and Dubai. India has rolled out a number of steps to burnish its lure, offering exemptions from rules and taxes that weigh on trading in the rest of the country. 

ANZ Group Holdings and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking are among some of the latest entrants to the zone that is a flagship project of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who returned to power for a third term this month. 

CapitaLand will seek to launch different private funds including equity and debt from the GIFT City, serving global clients, the people said. Such funds will generally focus on commercial real estate including IT parks and data centres, they added.

CapitaLand and IFSCA did not reply to Bloomberg’s e-mails seeking comments on the matter. BLOOMBERG