Cash in commercial properties takes real estate investment to 10-year high

Commercial, as a sector, has been doing really well. Since 2015, the absorption of office space has been upwards of 40 million square feet per annum. Last year, it was 42.5 million square feet, and in 2018, we expect it to be more than 40 million square feet. Because of the leasing that is happening in the commercial space, the overall sentiments are pretty strong. This is why more and more investors are picking up stakes in completed and leased out assets," Abhinav Joshi, head of research at the India operations of CBRE, the US-based commercial real estate services and investment firm. In 2017, a total 78 private equity deals were transacted in the sector - the biggest one of which was purchase of 33.34 per cent stake in realty major DLF's rental arm by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC for around $1.38 billion. In a presentation about the deal, DLF had said that the transaction would mean significant debt reduction in the company's residential business. "The weakness in real estate is largely in the residential sector because of reasons such as demonetisation, GST, and RERA that have impacted the sector directly. Sales and registrations have been going down, developers have been very cautious while launching new projects. New supplies have also gone down. In fact, last year was a bottom year in terms of the housing market," Joshi said. Next to the DLF-GIC deal in 2017 was the $600 million investment by the Singapore-headquartered sustainable urban development and business space solutions provider Ascendas in Firstspace Realty. Given the strain in the residential sector, developers may have also parted with stake in certain commercial projects at below the market price to raise funds and enhance their liquidity situation. "Private equity investment momentum has been strong over the last 4-5 years, but only a few distress sales by developers have happened where liquidity was a requirement. Because of the stress in residential sector, liquidity has been impacted in general. But largely deals have happened at the market rate," Joshi said. The real estate sector as a whole has, however, remained short of funds. The Indian Express had reported last month that the government was likely to underline at the RBI's Central Board meeting on December 14 that the stress in the real estate sector threatens job losses. RBI data on sectoral deployment of funds shows that while commercial real estate (CRE) witnessed significant slowdown in bank credit availability post-demonetisation, the credit outstanding for CRE witnessed a contraction for the first time in 13 months. In September, it contracted 0.8 per cent over the same period last year. CRE comprises loans extended to builders for construction of housing buildings, hotels, shopping malls, industrial parks, office blocks and hospitals, which are classified as commercial real estate by RBI. "This money (from PE investors) has gone into completed assets. Blackstone, Brookfield, GIC have invested in completed office buildings, which is not risky. The market is very bad on the residential side, and money has not gone there at all. PE investors have cherry-picked fully completed and leased out assets giving a return of 8-9 per cent per annum," Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock Property Consultants, said. The PE investment in commercial real estate has gone beyond the metros and tier-I towns. "Even in tier-II cities, private equity investors have been looking at mall spaces with good footfall, tenant mix, and strong sales. They have also been acquiring such properties," Joshi said. "While we say that these policy measures have impacted the sector, for the investors it is positive, as they view these as structural reforms. There is a regulator for the sector now, there is more clarity on GST, which is why investors are expected to put in more money in the real estate sector," he added. Dailyhunthttps://issuu.com/zeevakeeno

Political row again in Karnataka's Ballari LS seat over mining baron G Janardhan Reddy's role

Shantha is pitted against VS Ugrappa, the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition candidate. Former chief minister Siddaramaiah last week attacked Reddy, who is an accused in illegal mining cases, and Sreeramulu. He said the duo did not know about the special status accorded to the backward Hyderabad-Karnataka region, where the district is located under the Constitution's Article 371 J, for reservation to the residents in education, jobs, and promotions. Siddaramaiah said they knew of the Indian Penal Code's section 420, which deals with cheating. Reddy claimed some sources within the state's intelligence department had advised him to be alert as Karnataka's Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance government was gunning for him. 'They have created an atmosphere of fear not just here but also at my house in Bengaluru,'' Reddy told journalists in Molkalmuru district near Ballari, where he cannot go as per Supreme Court directions because of the cases he faces. 'But I did not get scared even after they put me in jail. Let these elections conclude and I will tell the people of the state everything.' A BJP leader declined to comment on whether Reddy was a part of the party. In the run-up to the assembly elections, BJP president Amit Shah had dissociated the party from Reddy, even as it fielded his brothers Karunakara and Somashekhar. The mining baron said the Congress had decided to attack him every single day to discredit his close friend Sreeramulu. 'Siddaramaiah keeps saying I looted money. But in his five-year tenure as chief minister he could not prove what it was that I had done,' he said. Siddaramaiah said the Congress had given the state schemes for free rice and milk. 'The BJP government's contribution to the state is the looter Reddy brothers and Sreeramulu who is standing in their support,' he tweeted. Dailyhunthttps://my.desktopnexus.com/juckzingchuk/

Aquaman actor Jason Momoa: The film has vital message about Earth's health

"Yet what makes him human, even humble under all that swagger, is that he knows he is just not ready for it. "Unfortunately for Arthur, time is not on his side. His half-brother, Orm, has seen to that, and his plan to incite a war allowed the filmmakers to include vital messaging about the health of our planet in the story. Orm has decided to unite all the ocean kingdoms, and attack the surface world, largely because of all the things we do to pollute our oceans." Aquaman actor Jason Momoa claims he has not worked out in a year Momoa explained that his character Arthur will fight against the Orm to save the planet. "Arthur doesn't care if he is king, he just doesn't want Orm to hurt the surface. Orm is all about uniting the seven kingdoms and taking over the whole world. So, Arthur finally sees that he has to stop him and the only way to do that is embark on this huge crusade, this epic road trip. That is the cool part because it has this 'romancing the stone' kind of vibe, which I really loved." Also featuring actor Amber Heard, Aquaman will hit the screens in India on December 14, a week ahead of its release in the US by Warner Bros. Dailyhunthttps://justpaste.it/3xp47

Tata Steel, Thyssen set to pick boss for planned joint venture

he new company will have around 48,000 workers and about 17 billion euros ($19.4 billion) in sales, with production facilities in Germany, the Netherlands and Britain.Goss, seen as well connected in the industry, has led Thyssenkrupp's steel division since 2014. The unit's adjusted operating profit rose by 26 per cent to 687 million euros over the past financial year.His appointment would further strengthen Thyssenkrupp's position in the 50-50 venture, which already includes a greater share of proceeds should the entity be listed on the stock exchange, which is widely expected.Signed in June, the planned entity still needs European antitrust approval, which is expected towards the end of the first quarter of 2019. The groups might have to divest assets to secure approval, sources had previously said. 1483456 Hans Fischer, chief executive of Tata Steel's European subsidiary, is also likely to join the venture's management board, the people said, adding it was unclear how many seats the board would have.Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel in June said the joint venture's management board would consist of six members, shared equally between both groups. That number could be reduced to four to give a more focused structure to the entity, which will be called Thyssenkrupp Tata Steel, the people said.A decision will be announced very soon. Thyssenkrupp chief executive Guido Kerkhoff said last month a decision on the joint venture's leadership would be made before Christmas."The joint venture would have a two-tier management structure comprising a management board and a supervisory board," a Tata Steel spokesman said."Both boards would have equal representation from Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel," he said, adding further announcements will be made "in due course". When asked about the issue, a spokesman for Thyssenkrupp referred back to Kerkhoff's remarks. Dailyhunthttps://www.vox.com/users/rajeevkankala

World's first baby born via womb transplant from dead donor

Dani Ejzenberg, a doctor at Brazil's Sao Paulo University hospital who led the research, said the transplant - carried out in September 2016 when the recipient was 32 - shows the technique is feasible and could offer women with uterine infertility access to a larger pool of potential donors. The current norm for receiving a womb transplant is that the organ would come from a live family member willing to donate it. 'The numbers of people willing and committed to donate organs upon their own deaths are far larger than those of live donors, offering a much wider potential donor population,' Ejzenberg said in a statement about the results. She added, however, that the outcomes and effects of womb donations from live and deceased donors have yet to be compared, and said the technique could still be refined and optimised. The first baby born after a live donor womb transplant was in Sweden in 2013. Scientists have so far reported a total of 39 procedures of this kind, resulting in 11 live births. Experts estimate that infertility affects around 10 to 15 percent of couples of reproductive age worldwide. Of this group, around one in 500 women have uterine problems. Before uterus transplants became possible, the only options to have a child were adoption or surrogacy. In the Brazilian case, the recipient had been born without a uterus due to a condition called Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome. The donor was 45 and died of a stroke. Five months after the transplant, Ejzenberg's team wrote, the uterus showed no signs of rejection, ultrasound scans were normal, and the recipient was having regular menstruation. The woman's previously fertilised and frozen eggs were implanted after seven months and 10 days later she was confirmed pregnant. At seven months and 20 days - when the case study report was submitted to The Lancet - the baby girl was continuing to breastfeed and weighed 7.2 kg (16 lb). Read Babies born in withdrawal new complication in opioid cases Dailyhunthttps://vimeo.com/user91279951/about

Arunachal plans major road to town near Myanmar border

Gen. A.S. Guraya, inspector-general of the Assam Rifles.The valley was later named by him after his son.Addressing a meeting on the sidelines of the launch of his two-month-long Arunachal Rising campaign, Khandu said, "Vijaynagar has huge tourism potential owing to its scenic beauty. A lot of horticulture and agriculture activities can take place here.""These potentials have, however, been hampered by lack of proper surface and air communication," the chief minister said."Though former chief minister Dorjee Khandu had approved of conducting a survey and preparing a detailed project report to construct the Vijaynagar road under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, it was delayed owing to improper work allocation," he added.The chief minister also assured that an additional 70-metre steel suspension bridge would be constructed beside the Empen Bridge on the 32km motorable road from Miao, which normally gets cut off during the monsoon.On air connectivity to Vijaynagar, the chief minister said he would take up the issue with the Centre to expedite work on the advance landing ground (ALG) here and it would soon be connected with other six ALGs in the state under the Chief Minister's Connectivity Scheme.Khandu also said he will talk to private carriers on starting MI 172 helicopter services in the region for six days a week. Dailyhunthttps://wanelo.co/zeevakeeno

Wasp venom offers hope against lung diseases

However, in a study over mice, the team repurposed a toxin normally found in Polybia paulista - a South American wasp - to create variants of the peptide that are potent against bacteria but non-toxic to human cells. They found that their strongest peptide could completely eliminate Pseudomonas aeruginosa - a strain of bacteria that causes respiratory and urinary tract infections and is resistant to most antibiotics. "We've repurposed a toxic molecule into one that is a viable molecule to treat infections," said Cesar de la Fuente-Nunez, postdoctoral researcher at MIT. "By systematically analysing the structure and function of these peptides, we've been able to tune their properties and activity," Fuente-Nunez added. The peptide, reported in the journal Nature Communications Biology, is small enough- only 12 amino acids - that the researchers believed it would be feasible to create some variants of the peptide and test them to see if they might become more potent against microbes and less harmful to humans. The team tested the peptides against seven strains of bacteria and two of fungus, making it possible to correlate their structure and physicochemical properties with their antimicrobial potency. To measure the peptides' toxicity, the researchers exposed them to human embryonic kidney cells grown in a lab dish. In mice infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the team found that several of the peptides could reduce the infection and could eliminate it completely. "After four days, that compound can completely clear the infection, and that was quite surprising and exciting because we don't typically see that with other experimental antimicrobials or other antibiotics that we've tested in the past with this particular mouse model," Fuente-Nunez noted. Dailyhunthttps://www.openstreetmap.org/user/juckzingchuk

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