Mumbai, Feb. 3: In one of the largest commercial real estate transactions in the city, Essar Group today announced the sale of its Equinox Business Park in Mumbai's Bandra-Kurla Complex to the South Asian real estate development company RMZ Corp for around Rs 2,400 crore.

Essar Group today said it has signed a definitive agreement with RMZ Corp for the sale of its business park, a 1.25-million-square-foot office space.

Apart from the offices of Essar, the business park houses tenants such as Nissan Motors, Acropolis, Crompton Greaves, Gilbarco Aegis and Lafarge.

A statement from the group said this was the latest in a series of large office space buyouts by RMZ Corp, which has created a portfolio of rent-yielding commercial assets in India. It is learnt that part of the proceeds from the sale will be used by the Essar Group to retire its debt.

"We are progressing our vision to create a more attractive and engaging environment, which meets the changing needs of our customers. We are confident that with this acquisition we will extend our core businesses into the growing markets with a world-class development opportunity in the heart of one of Mumbai's major regeneration zones," Manoj Menda, corporate vice-chairman of RMZ Corp, said.

RMZ holds 20 million square feet of core assets under management and it has laid out a five-year growth plan of 80 million square feet anchored by Qatar Investment Authority.

RMZ has built over Grade A 15-million-square-feet commercial office space. It also has a division called RMZ Homes, which was set up in 2011 to cater to the mid-to-luxury segment of the residential markets in south India, particularly in Bangalore and Chennai. Around 88 per cent of its portfolio in India are offices, followed by homes and others.

"This transaction fits in with Essar's strategy of successfully building businesses and actively managing the portfolio of assets to create and deliver value. This is in line with the present objective and focus of Essar to monetise non-core assets and de-leverage the balance sheet,'' Anshuman Ruia of Essar said while commenting on the transaction.