Press releases

Press Release

Thimphu, 29 October 2014 . Druk Holding and Investments (DHI), the commercial arm of the Royal Government of Bhutan, has today signed the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) with its Joint Venture Partner, Assetz Property Group (APG) of Singapore, to acquire the 70% stake that APG held in Thimphu TechPark Pvt. Ltd., the company that developed the first IT Park in Bhutan on a DBFOOT (Design, Build, Finance, Own, Operate and Transfer) Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. The IT Park is also the first PPP Project to be carried out in Bhutan.

The discussions on the deal were initiated in the beginning of this year when APG expressed its intent to exit from the JV partnership citing changes within their company and their strategic interests as the main reasons. However, due diligence, getting the required clearances from the Government and other official procedures that needed to be fulfilled for tasks of this nature took some time.  With the signing of the SPA today, DHI becomes the 100% owner of Thimphu TechPark.

DHI has decided to acquire APG’s stake in the IT Park as it sees long term commercial viability in the project, to promote and nurture the IT sector in Bhutan, to help in creating employment opportunities for our youth and to help earn much-needed foreign exchange. DHI’s immediate objective is to make the IT Park more vibrant by providing the required budgetary support for its marketing, operations and maintenance so that it can attract more tenants.

Currently, there are about 280 people working for about 5 companies in the IT Park.