Professional services firm EY is looking to lease 3 million sq. ft. in Bangalore to consolidate and expand its India back-office operations.
The new facility would seat 30,000 employees and also host the company’s global delivery services centre. “The firm has shortlisted some builders and the deal is likely to be closed soon, ” said a person familiar with the request for proposal. According to people aware of the plans, EY is looking to either set up a company-owned campus or rent out office space in North Bangalore. “The firm is open to both renting and owning the commercial property totaling to 25 acres, ” said another person aware of the deal.
EY currently occupies 1.1mn sq ft office space across commercial properties in Bengaluru. The firm has around 35,000 employees working out of different locations in the country and is looking to ramp it further. At EY global development centre, executives work across functions like finance, business development, technology, talent, procurement, and risk management functions to help deliver solutions to global clients.
EY is one of the very few multinational firms that have gone ahead with the office expansion despite the business uncertainties. Some of the large MNCs that have leased spaces in the past six months include Amazon, WellsFargo, GSK, and Google. According to Colliers International report, Commercial office absorption is seeing an uptick in demand across the top six Indian cities, with Q3 2020 gross absorption at 6.5 million square feet (MSF), up 58% QOQ.
Bengaluru contributed the majority of the transaction followed by Hyderabad and Delhi-NCR. The rise in leasing activity signals that occupiers are returning to the drawing board to close ongoing deals that were stalled earlier. However, during January-September 2020, gross absorption fell 46% YOY to 22.5 msf due to the prolonged lockdown in the country. The firm currently has about 9 global development centres in India in cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurugram, Kochi, Kolkata, and Trivandrum.
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