GIC Pte. Ltd. edged out Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to lead the race for a 40% stake in Prestige Estates Projects Ltd.'s rental arm, which is worth an estimated 14.00 billion Indian rupees, The Times of India reported, citing people directly aware of the matter.

If a deal is signed, the Singaporean wealth fund could own a slice of Prestige Estates' rental business unit, which manages a 5 million-square-foot office portfolio in Bangalore that houses tenants including JP Morgan, Cisco, Microsoft and Mylan, according to the publication. It would also follow GIC's 89.00-billion-rupee acquisition of a 33.34% stake in the rental business of DLF Ltd. in December 2017.

Prestige Estates is India's third-largest residential developer after the yet-to-be-listed Lodha Developers Private Ltd. and DLF, according to the publication. It has a market capitalization of 120.00 billion rupees and owns a nearly 9-million-square-foot rental portfolio that includes IT parks, special economic zones, retail properties and hotels.

In July 2017, the company was reported to be planning to sell interests in its commercial and retail property portfolios in a bid to raise capital, while in December of the same year it agreed to buy a 50% stake in CapitaLand Retail Prestige Mall Management Pvt. Ltd. from certain CapitaLand Ltd. subsidiaries as part of a 3.43-billion-rupee agreement.

Prestige Estates declined to comment and GIC could not be reached immediately, The Times noted Feb. 19.

As of Feb. 19, US$1 was equivalent to 64.51 Indian rupees.