Embassy Office Parks REIT, the largest real estate investment trust in Asia, is looking to expand its operations in Calcutta as part of a strategy to broad-base its footprint.

The Bangalore-based entity, sponsored by private equity investor Blackstone and real estate giant Embassy Group, has 35 million square feet of office space asset under ownership and another 10 million square feet under development. Around 75 per cent of the Embassy REIT’s assets are in Bangalore while the rest are spread over Mumbai, Pune and NCR-Delhi.

“We would like to be present in some of the major office markets in the country such as Chennai, Hyderabad and Calcutta,” Abhishek Agarwal, deputy chief financial officer of Embassy Office Parks REIT, said in Calcutta on Tuesday.

At present, the entity is evaluating an acquisition of 5.5 million square feet office space asset in Chennai even as talks for a smaller office parcel did not work out in Hyderabad. “We are also looking for opportunities in Calcutta. However, the asset has to meet the high standards Embassy follows,” Agarwal explained.

Rajarhat and Sector V of Salt Lake are two of the more prominent micro markets which are on the radar of investors such as Embassy. Given the track record of distribution yield of 7 per cent, the entity is scouting for office assets that can match up to it.

Even as Embassy, which was listed four years ago, is attempting to widen its operational base, Bangalore would continue to remain the core area of business for the entity. Of the 10 million square feet area which Embassy is going to develop over the next four years, 90 per cent will be in Bangalore.

“There is a strong demand coming from global companies that are expanding in India,” Agarwal said. JP Morgan accounts for 6.7 per cent of the REIT’s rentals.