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M. Ramesh

CHENNAI, April 14

THE `TIAM House', which houses the headquarters of the Chennai-based Murugappa group, and one of the landmark buildings in central Chennai, is up for sale.

This follows a "consolidation move" in the Murugappa group, which has rendered a lot of office space surplus.

The group has five blocks of buildings on the Rajaji Salai — the Dare House, the Parry House, Dare House Annexe, the TIAM House and the TIAM House Annexe.

In the `consolidation phase', the Carborundum Universal offices in the TIAM house have been shifted to the plant site. The operations of Parry Confectionery Ltd are on a low key. Besides, in recent times, there have been VRS programmes in some of the group companies, which have resulted in the reduction of the number of employees.

Consequently, the group needs less space. It is understood that most of the offices are moving into the Dare House.

The seven-storeyed TIAM House, located in the heart of the city, is to be completely vacated shortly.

The group has decided to sell the building. Several floors of the building have been recently done up, but it is not clear whether this was done with an intention of enhancing the value of the building.

Asked about this, a senior official of the group told Business Line that a couple of parties were talking to the group.

The official did not want to disclose the price the group had in mind, but sources said it could run into "tens of crores".

"We are in no hurry to sell the building. We will sell only when we get a good price," the official said.

In fact, one company was interested to buy the building, if the Murugappa group would continue to occupy the building and pay a rent. This, the Murugappa group was not interested in.

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