MUMBAI: The Ajmera group-controlled Shree Precoated Steels, which has interests in real estate and steel, has taken a decision to hive off its steel business into a separate company. This will be a reverse merger as the Mumbai-based group had earlier merged its real estate assets with Shree Precoated Steels.

The group will rename Shree Precoated Steels as Ajmera Real Estate and Infrastructure, while the demerged entity will be known as Shree Precoated Steels, said Shree Precoated Steels CFO OP Gandhi. The group had mandated PricewaterhouseCoopers to advise it on the demerger, he told ET. The Ajmera family owns 62.5 per cent in Shree Precoated Steels, according to BSE data.
Post-demerger, Ajmera Real Estate and Infrastructure will hold the group’s five real estate projects — three in Mumbai (Wadala, Kanjur Marg and Ghatkopar) and one each in Bangalore and Bahrain. Shree Precoated Steel will continue to make colour coated galvanised steel sheets. On 16th may, the stock closed marginally down at Rs 189.20 on BSE. “The demerger will help the group give exact focus to both steel and real estate businesses,” Mr Gandhi said. The group is developing residential and commercial projects in Wadala and Kanjur Marg, while it is developing a residential project in Ghatkopar.
Mr Gandhi said the Kanjur Marg project is the biggest among its existing real estate developments. The project is being developed under a special purpose vehicle named Jolly Brothers.
The group also plans to develop a two thousand five hundred crore rupees, residential-cum hospitality-cum-commercial area in Kanjur Marg, comprising residential space of twenty six lakh sq ft and commercial space of fifty four lakh sq ft. The company intends to pump in Rs 500 crore and raise Rs 1,000 crore by way of debt.
Ajmera group has already developed 170 lakh sq ft in Mumbai, besides large format projects in Pune, Rajkot, Ahmedabad and Surat.

ICICI Venture, the private equity wing of ICICI Bank, plans to raise three billion dollar from its 2 funds including equity and a real estate fund.
A senior ICICI Venture executive told that they will raise $1.5 billion from both these funds.
The ICICI Venture executive said the company expects to generate most of the investment for the fund from the US, Europe, Canada and West Asia.
“The equity fund will invest in all vital knowledge economy sectors. The real estate fund will invest in residential in addition to commercial properties,” he said.
The $1.5 billion real estate fund is the 2nd such offering from ICICI. The company has just closed a five hundred fifty million dollar real estate fund, the first in a proposed series of real estate funds by the firm.
Real estate is the hottest sector for private equity investment in the country, and accounts for 30- 40 % of the deals. At present, Goldman Sachs one billion dollar real estate fund is the largest fund investing in real estate in India. The US investment banking firm had set up this fund in 2006.
Credit Suisse had also announced plans to set up a one billion dollar real estate fund in India. However, the proposal was not cleared by the RBI.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Metro has produced six hundred crore revenue from the commercial use of its property during the first phase of the Metro project.

The real revenue generation is approximately double the target, thanks to skyrocketing commercial property prices and growing demand from retail sector and IT companies. Buoyed by the excellent response, DMRC officials expect that total revenue from property development would reach Rs 1,000 crore in a few years.
Earnings from commercial use of vacant land constitute around 30% of the total operating revenues generated by DMRC. In 2007-08, the company reported total operating revenue of Rs 327 crore, a 28% increase from Rs 256 crore in 2006-07.
“The revenue generated from the property development in the first phase of the metro project will contribute to our internal accruals, which will be used to finance the next phase of the Metro project. Still, there are some unoccupied areas that can be commercially used under the phase-I and we expect the total earnings from such commercial activity to reach Rs 1,000 crore. In the second phase, similar property development will be undertaken and we have targeted a revenue generation of Rs 405 crore from the same,” said a source.
Property development undertaken so far includes 6-12-year licence awarded for the spaces within station buildings for commercial related vendors such as ATMs, kiosks, refreshment and magazine stalls. Similarly, shopping malls have also been set up through developers on a license basis for the period of 12 years inside station buildings which have larger concourses.
Such malls have already come up at Inderlok, Netaji Subhash Place and Kashmere gate stations. DMRC has set up an IT park at Shastri park station which has been rented out to ITES operators. The company has undertaken some residential and commercial developments outside Shahdara and Inderlok stations through developers on a concession period of 30 years.

NEW DELHI: All new airports in the country will emerge as business nucleus with world class office, hospitality and retail space. The modernization and development of airports will not only provide the facelift to respective cities but also improve the real estate sector, said a report by Cushman & Wakefield.

To exploit the trend of rising city centers around airports, the Airport Authority of India has provided huge land for development of commercial realty and retail space. For airports in Mumbai and Delhi, the report said, 50 per cent of the total real estate space has been allocated for commercial development.
India has come into view as one of the most favored destination in Asia-Pacific region for strong performance of businesses, which led to an influx of MNCs. This has sustained the demand for commercial office space in large cities. The high economic growth across the country also made the smaller cities like Lucknow, Kochi, Coimbatore, Mysore, Jaipur and Indore among others attractive destinations to do businesses.
The report said apart from commercial office space supply, these airport projects will also allow time saving between business meetings during the transit/ waiting period with the proposed convention and business centers that form part of the overall development plan.
In the retail sector also, the report said, huge opportunities are awaited. It said, “With changes in airport security, passengers today are required to arrive early, consequently finding themselves with adequate time to spend before departing.” This provides the opportunity to tap the captive consumer base with high spending power.

Landmark Group declared that it would invest approx four thousand crore rupees in developing twelve properties across the north India in the coming three to four years.

Mr. Amit Kumar, Director, Landmark Group, said, “Currently, our twelve projects are undergoing in the North, which will be completed in the next three to four years. We will be investing about one billion dollar in developing these projects”. Further he added that the company would fund the projects through internal accruals and funds from private equities.

He said, “We will try to fund our projects through our own resources, but also, we do not mind private equity players’ participation. Starting from twenty-five percent, we are ready to sell up to forty percent to private equity players in different projects”.

The NCR-based firm has planned to develop three hotels, 2 5-star and a budget hotels in the coming three years, which could entail an investment of about seven hundred crore rupees.

Mr. Kumar said that Landmark Group is developing a three thousand room 5-star hotel in dharuhera and a budget hotel in Gurgaon with more than hundred rooms. The other five star hotel would come up at Bawal in Haryana

The Indian real estate company Sigrun and a leading Israeli firm are in talks over a deal worth more than five hundred million dollar, as said by knowledgeable sources.

Most of Sigrun’s activities (95 %) are in residential property and the rest in office rentals, according to CEO and controlling shareholder Rajesh Nair. He said that the company’s profit in preceding FY was fifteen million dollar, and if everything goes as planned, this year it will be forty million dollar.
Sigrun is examining different possibilities for cooperating with Israeli companies. One main Israeli firm, which has not expanded into the Indian market so far, expressed interest in continuing the contacts with Sigrun, and the latter has hired a leading Tel Aviv law office to facilitate the proceedings.
In a discussion with TheMarker, Nair pointed out that his company has construction-ready building plots in India worth five hundred million dollar, in addition to 100 apartment units in different stages of construction. He said that the discussion here have not yet reached the stage of precise numbers and percentages.
Nair stressed that any Israeli partner must have international exposure, since Sigrun has not yet ventured away from India, while many Israeli companies are active in the world real estate market. He said he is looking for a company that can bring to the table technologies and planning capabilities that Sigrun lacks at this time, while Sigrun can contribute its proficiency in the Indian market to the Israeli partner.
Only a few Israeli developers – including Electra Real Estate and Azorim, and Elbit Imaging – are involved in construction in India.

A few years ago, DDA and GDA used to make one-bedroom flats in a big way. These one-bedroom flats can be seen in numerous parts of the capital, and in Ghaziabad. Thousand of people live in these flats with their families.

Nowadays, there are ample buyers for such one-bedroom flats; the prestigious real estate firms have almost stopped making one-bedroom houses. One has to really make an extra effort to figure out if any well-known builder is still constructing such flats.

This trend has also spread out to the whole of NCR. Those who know the real estate market well enough will tell you that many aspiring flat owners cannot buy houses due to the high cost of 2,3 and 4 bedroom apartments.

Due to this very reason, many of them drop the idea of buying a flat. If the same people are offered a single-bedroom house, costing up to Rs 18-20 lakhs, they can easily buy that with the help of a home loan. It is really baffling to say the least, that builders have essentially stopped making single-bedroom flats despite the enormous demand.

Anil Sharma of Amrapali group also says that there is an urgent need to build a large number of one-bedroom houses in a covered area of up to 700 square feet.

Mr. Sharma said, “I know from my own experience that there are many people from my home state Bihar, interested in purchasing small and compact flats here in Delhi. But, due to non-availability of such flats, they keep on living in rented house”.

Mr. Sharma suggest a solution by stating that as nobody can force any builder to make one-bedroom houses, it is high time that the government gives some financial incentives to builders so that they feel encouraged to make one-bedroom flats.

Real estate and hospitality major Royal Palms India will invest two thousand four hundred crore rupees in the coming two years for setting up four- and five-star hotels in big cities in the country. The company is planning to build four luxury hotels in Mumbai.

Royal Palms India Joint Managing Director Dilawar Nensey said that “The company is setting up four luxury hotels in Mumbai itself, out of which one is a three-star, one four star and two five-star hotels. This will increase the total room capacity to three thousand by 2010, which will be around 30% of the total rooms available in the city”.

Royal Palms already have 2 hotels in Mumbai and 3 each in Hyderabad and Kolkata. Right now, the company has a total of about four hundred rooms in Mumbai. “The investment for Mumbai will be one of the uppermost as it excludes the price required for land. We plan to set up hotels on our own land at Goregaon East,” Nensey said. The addition of rooms will provide to the existing lack of around three thousand rooms per day in Mumbai.
The company is in the process of identifying properties in Hyderabad and Kolkata for setting up luxury hotels. Royal Palms will invest around one thousand four hundred crore rupees to build three- and five-star hotels in these cities.
The company intends to develop one three-star, one four-star and one five-star hotel each in Hyderabad and Kolkata, with a total room capacity of around one thousand.

Pantaloon Retail (India) Limited, a future group venture, will make an investment of more than Rs 1500 crore for opening more than 110 big bazaar hyper Markets in various cities across the country, Anand Adukia, Zonal Chief of the company said on Friday.

“With this launch, Big bazaar is now present in all the four major cities of Ahmadabad (five stores), Anand, Surat, Rajkot and Vadodara (one each) while the count for all India goes upto 90 stores in 55 cities in the country,” Adukia told reporters, after opening its ninth store in the city today.

The sprawling three floors of Vadodara Big Bazzar houses over 1.6 lakh products and is a destination store to cater to every single household needs of a family, he said.

“We are a consumer-driven company and we ensure that all our Big Bazzar stores fulfill the needs of the entire household under one roof,”Adukia said.

This store also houses, ‘Navras’, a national brand known for fine 22 carat pure gold and diamond jewelery.

The company intends to open one more store in Vadodara, and Ahmedabad in next couple of months along with Jamnagar, Bhavnagar and Vapi among others, Adukia added.

Besides, the company also intends to open 11 more stores in Gujarat later this year, he said adding, with this, the company has made a total investment of Rs 500 crore in the state.

At present, Pantaloons caters to the lifestyle segment through its 40 stores and seven central malls.

The company is a leading retailer with a turn over of over Rs 3350 crores and is targeting 50% growth this year, Adukia added.

With bank credit drying up and private channels of funding getting expensive, several small developers are attempting to mop-up funds from retail investors by offering them a 12% guaranteed return for 5-9 years. Under the scheme, a retail investor has to buy a minimum area in the project and make an outright payment.

Delhi-based Piyush group, which is developing a 4 lakh square feet IT project in Faridabad, is offering a 12% return for nine years, but investor will have to make a minimum investment of Rs 20 lakh for 500 square feet. Piyush Group JMD Mr. Amit Goyal said, “We are offering a minimum guarantee to investors to cover their risk as the project is not yet ready and so can’t be leased out”.

There are several other developers who are offering a similar return for a minimum purchase of 500 square feet. A buyer or an investor would get monthly return till the project gets completed.

Following which, the developer will lease out the space and the rentals, if it exceeds the guaranteed 12%, would either be given away to investor or shared between the investor and the developer depending on the scheme. However, if the rentals dip below the 12% mark, the developer is expected to compensate the investor.

Experts say 12.25% is a much cheaper rate in today’s cash-crunch times. Cushman & Wakefield India director (capital markets group) Mr. Sandeep Singh said, “Small developers are not getting bank loans. Private borrowings at 18% or more is quite risky. So it makes sense for them to borrow it from retail investors at 12%”.

He added that if the developer borrows from a bank, he will have to pay back, but under this scheme he removes risk from the very beginning.

The face of Indian postal department is changing, under pressure from modern communication systems. Gone are the days when post offices were used for screening and distributing letters. Today, it is entering into every possible business segment, be it money exchange or logistics. With a network of 1,55,516 post offices in every nook and corner of the country, India Post is all set to conquer new frontiers.

Indian Post used to be one of the prominent pillars of the country’s communication infrastructure. This, however, is no longer the case with the emergence of telecom and Internet as the preferred mode of communication. Courier services have also made a dent into the revenues of the postal department. With an aim to revive its past glory, the Department of Post (DoP) has planned a series of initiatives including rapid induction of information technology, introduction of logistics post air, tie-up with commercial banks and launch of new mailing and money-order schemes.

The department also plans to strategically leverage its vast network of over 1.5 lakh post offices across the country, the largest in the world. From railway reservation to spreading education on the government’s social sector schemes, the neighborhood post office plans to become a single gateway for almost all official purposes.

Further, with an aim to leverage upon its vast real estate assets, the Indian post is also planning to form a special purpose vehicle (SPV). The SPV would be responsible for planning and execution of commercial utilisation of vacant plots of land and buildings. The special purpose vehicle would be a 100% subsidiary of the DoP.

“Commercial exploitation of the real estate properties would provide Indian Post the much needed revenue for taking the modernisation plans,” communications minister A Raja said.

After low-cost airlines, budget hotels, cheap cell phones, low-cost computers et al, it’s now time for branded low-cost houses. Delhi-based real estate major Omaxe is planning to invest Rs 8,000 crore in next five years in affordable housing projects. The company has floated a subsidiary National Affordable Housing and Infrastructure which will be building the affordable houses. In all, Omaxe plans to build about 10 lakh low-cost houses.

Omaxe CMD Mr. Rohtas Goel, said, “We are investing from the internal accruals. Going forward, we will also look at SPV level equity from India and abroad”. The company is also looking at slum redevelopment model to build affordable houses. For this, proposals have already been sent to the state governments of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan. The company has earmarked Rs 200 crore for slum rehab projects. Such projects will help Omaxe in acquiring land at a cost which will make development of affordable or low-cost houses a feasible option.

For affordable or low-cost houses, it has already acquired land in Neemrana, Ghaziabad and Lucknow. Mr. Goel said, “The land for the affordable housing projects will cost us around Rs 100-200 per square feet depending on the city, while the cost of construction will be Rs 700 per square feet. The units will be sold at Rs 1000 to1100 per square feet”. The first project, in Neemrana, will be launched after three months and will be completed in a span of 2-3 years.

The company plans to build low-cost houses on slum land. However, analysts believe that it might not be a very feasible model. Mr. Anuj Puri said, “Slum rehab is very popular in Mumbai. Real estate developers are now eyeing a similar model in other cities too as land is becoming scarce and expensive. But it’s tough to make profits if low-cost houses are made on the balance land as slum dwellers need to be rehabilitated for free and developer needs to cover that cost which can be done only by making luxury apartments”.

In Mumbai realty developers such as HDIL and Akruti City have developed slum redevelopment projects. Omaxe has also launched an international design competition for efficient and economical structural design and optimum space utilization. It has also tied up with the London School of Architecture.

Tamil Nadu Launches Portal For e-Processing Of Land

The Tamil Nadu government today launched a website for online processing of land documents, including registration.
State minister for Revenue and Housing I Periasami unveiled the website at regional review conference organised jointy by the Land Resources department and Union Ministry of Rural Development.
He said, “The website ‘www.Eservices.Tn.Gov.In’ will have all details such as patta pertaining to lands of individuals”.
Further he said, “So far, 3.2 crores of land resources having full details of the owner/enterprise across the state have been registered on this website”.
The website which is to be launched in interior districts of Tamil Nadu in a phased manner will be covering the entire state soon.
Mr. Periasami further said, “Initially, it has been launched in Dindigul, Vellore and Coimbatore”. Elaborating about the project, Union Rural Development Secretary Rita Sinha said that e-processing would prevent tampering of documents and every individual registering on the website would have a unique identity number.
Already this kind of e-processing of land resources had been implemented in various states and also in other countries, including England, Australia, Thailand and Kenya.
Rita Sinha said, “Initially, we have planned to launch it in 11 states across the country and as of now, it has been completed in Karnataka, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and now Tamil Nadu. We want to cover the entire country by the end of 12th Five Year Plan”. Further she said that with this kind of development, accuracy and time reduction could be achieved.

The Tamil Nadu government today launched a website for online processing of land documents, including registration.
State minister for Revenue and Housing I Periasami unveiled the website at regional review conference organised jointy by the Land Resources department and Union Ministry of Rural Development.
He said, “The website ‘www.Eservices.Tn.Gov.In’ will have all details such as patta pertaining to lands of individuals”.
Further he said, “So far, 3.2 crores of land resources having full details of the owner/enterprise across the state have been registered on this website”.
The website which is to be launched in interior districts of Tamil Nadu in a phased manner will be covering the entire state soon.
Mr. Periasami further said, “Initially, it has been launched in Dindigul, Vellore and Coimbatore”. Elaborating about the project, Union Rural Development Secretary Rita Sinha said that e-processing would prevent tampering of documents and every individual registering on the website would have a unique identity number.
Already this kind of e-processing of land resources had been implemented in various states and also in other countries, including England, Australia, Thailand and Kenya.
Rita Sinha said, “Initially, we have planned to launch it in 11 states across the country and as of now, it has been completed in Karnataka, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and now Tamil Nadu. We want to cover the entire country by the end of 12th Five Year Plan”. Further she said that with this kind of development, accuracy and time reduction could be achieved.

Chandigarh, May 14:- The Chandigarh Housing Board, an autonomous body whose mandate is to provide housing to the middle class and economically weaker sections of the society, has indeed appeared as a money-making agent for the real estate developers.

Had the Chandigarh Administration or Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) levied the same conversion charges to the real estate giant Parsvnath Developers Limited, which they are charging from the city industrialists, it would have earned the exchequer hundreds of crores more as compared to what they have earned now.

The prime commercial land, measuring 123.79 acres, which was earmarked to provide housing to Information Technology professionals, has been allotted by the Chandigarh Administration to Parsvnath for raising a huge housing complex next to the Rajiv Gandhi Technology Park.

The Chandigarh Administration allotted the land to Chandigarh Housing Board at the rate of Rs 308.77 for every square yard, i.e. Rs 18.5 crore for 123.79 acres.

The land was further sold to Parsvnath at Rs 829 crore. The actual value of the land, on the same formula, which the Chandigarh Administration is using in case of conversion charges of industrial land, would indicate that the Administration has lost approximately Rs 1.43 lakh per square yard.

According to information procured under the Right to Information Act, the ‘dubious’ role played by Chandigarh Housing Board has become quite evident.

When the CHB had to make houses for the middle class and economically weaker section, it got the land from the UT Administration at the rate of Rs 3,200 to Rs 5,900 per square yard.

The cost is bound to be automatically passed on to the consumer. The Income Tax department has already issued a notice to the CHB for the payment of tax on the amount already received from the developer.

Dewan Housing Finance Corporation reported a 11.78% rise in net profit to Rs 29.44 crore compared with Rs 13.51 crore during the corresponding period last year.The company’s income went up 45.4% to Rs 148.02 crore during January-March 2008 as against Rs 101.80 crore during the same period last year.

The Dewan Housing board recommended a 10% final dividend in addition to a 15% interim dividend paid during previous FY. Profit before depreciation and tax rose 10.7% to Rs 36.74 crore in the fourth quarter. Provisions for taxes rose 98% to Rs 6.95 crore in the fourth quarter of previous financial year.

Mr. Kapil Wadhawan, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, said that the money is a part of the $250 million the company plans to raise for the private equity fund by March of next year .

He further said that initial investors for the fund would be from West Asia and the UK and more than half the corpus would be allocated towards real estate projects in emerging real estate cities. It had earlier raised a hundred crore rupees for another private equity fund and the entire corpus has been invested in various real estate projects.

The number of major global investors in the GCC property market is expected to more than double this year, according to research by Jones Lang LaSalle, a property consultancy.

Until this year, few of the “global 100″ property investors had ventured into the Gulf, despite a decade of strong growth in several countries.

The arrival of the biggest names in the business – such as American International Group (AIG), the American insurance group, and Singapore,s Capita Land, which signed a joint venture deal with Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala ­Development Company last year – is a sign that global investors are gaining confidence in the legal and regulatory framework in the region.

But the newcomers will still be dwarfed by existing investors – mostly from the Middle East and other nearby countries such as Pakistan and India – so their arrival will have a limited impact on prices.

In Dubai, for example, investors have enthusiastically greeted the creation of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority, which weeded out many sub-standard developers.

The international investors are expected to come from a range of sectors, including banking, insurance and real estate development, and from all major economic zones including America, South Korea, Singapore and ­Europe.

German investment bank SachsenFonds (SF) has bought stake in four realty projects of London Stock Exchange listed, India-focussed realty fund Trikona Trinity Capital for Rs 607 crore ($150 million). Trikona has made returns of 115% in the transaction.

In the Delhi-based Uppal IT park, SF raised its stake from 8% to 33%. In the Hyderabad-based residential and retail project Manjira, SF picked up 41%, thereby completely owning the project.
In the MK Mall being developed by DB Realty in Mumbai, SF picked up 40% and now owns 100% of the mall. SF also took 15% stake in Delhi’s Luxor Cybercity, owned by Trikona.
In another instance, Trikona and SF acquired 49 per cent in a redevelopment project in Bandra in Mumbai. The Mumbai-based Rustomjee Developers will undertake the development work, while SF and Trikona will contribute funds in the ratio of 55:45, Trikona said. Since SF is yet to set up its base in the country, Trikona is expected to manage all the assets.
Mr. Aashish Kalra, managing director of Trikona Trinity’s fund manager, Trikona Capital, said, “This transaction supports the company’s business plan and stated net asset value, and confirms our ability to deliver results. We have a solid, scalable investment and development platform and are confident that this transaction reinforces our leading position at the forefront of the Indian real estate and infrastructure markets.”
Trikona Trinity Capital (TC), a fund created for investing in Indian real estate and infrastructure, has entered into a binding agreement with SachsenFonds Holdings, a subsidiary of leading German public sector bank Sachsen, to divest a part of its portfolio and co-invest in new projects, at a transaction value of £74.15 million.
The transaction, which was first outlined in a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on April 1 this year, follows the partial divestment of Trikona TC’s asset portfolio to SF in December for an aggregate sale price of £32.11 million for a cash-on-cash return of 108%.
The current transaction has enabled Trikona TC to further divest a part of its portfolio for an aggregate sale price of €68.5 million (£54.10 million), realizing a gain of 115%.

The National Consumer Commission has held that a builder cannot deny compensation to a buyer on its failure to deliver a flat within a stipulated time.

The Commission rejected a contention of the builder, pleading that it should not be directed to pay any compensation for delay in delivery of flat as the prices of property had gone up.

The Commission said,”Such contention of any builder is unjustified and unreasonable because after sale of a property all the benefits accrue to the purchaser and not to the vendor. In any case, if it is accepted, the builders would earn crores of rupees by delaying the delivery”.

The Commission Bench headed by Justice M B Shah directed Ansal Properties and Industries Ltd to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 for “high-handed and rough behaviour” of its manager while dealing with a complainant Kunj Bihari Mehta.

Allowing a complaint of Mehta, the Commission also asked the real estate major to pay interest at 12% rate for 9 years on a sum of Rs 25.29 lakh deposited by him in 1997.

Mehta was delivered with the flat here in December 2007, 9 years after the promised date of the company.

The company, on the other hand, contended that it had sent a letter offering possession of flat to the complainant in 2003.

To this, Mehta submitted that the letter was received back by the company as he had shifted his residence.

DUBAI:, A leading Indian public sector bank Bank of Baroda, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Dubai-based real estate company Dubai Properties for funding buyers of the latter’s products in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In a statement Dubai Properties declared that the contract has been signed between Bank of Baroda chief executive for Gulf operations A. K. Gupta and Dubai Properties chief executive M. S. Binbrek.

Bank of Baroda is the lone Indian bank providing complete banking services in the UAE.

It has 6 branches, in Dubai, Deira, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah and an electronic banking service Unit at Jebel Ali near here. In Oman, the bank has three branches and in Bahrain one.

Phoenix Mills is in the final stage of acquiring three thirty acre plots in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Nashik for around eight billion rupees. The company plans to develop malls and entertainment zones on these lands.

It is learnt that the deal is likely to be sealed in the next few weeks.
The Mumbai-based real estate developer is developing Market City Projects, spread across 21.4 million square feet, in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Raipur, Agra and Indore.
The company is seeking to establish long-term relationships with developers in its bid to achieve a pan-India footprint in three years.

According to an estimate, the country is all set to have over 500 malls by 2010 from just three malls in 2000. Roughly 300 million sq ft of quality retail space will be accumulated by 2011.

Indiabulls group, a rising company with interests spanning from financial services to retail, on 12th may said it is in talks with some foremost global single-product retailers seeking a pan-India presence.

“The company is in early stages of discussions with some foremost international single-product retailers who desire to set up a pan India presence,” Indiabulls Real Estate (IBREL) on 12th may said while pronouncing its quarterly results.

In addition its real estate business that also caters to retail players with malls and other store-formats, Indiabulls also has its own retail venture, which has department stores, hypermarket stores and neighborhood stores.

The IBREL is currently building seventeen malls across sixteen cities with a shared leasable area of about fourteen million square feet. Indiabulls hyper-market stores and department stores are likely to be the anchor tenants in these malls.

The company said it expects majority of malls to be finished and leased out by late 2009. Full payment for the land of thirteen malls has already been made and these are in company’s control.

The proposed malls are coming up in cities like Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Chandigarh and Visakhapattnam. The company is expecting a monthly rental in the range of Rs 60-300 per sq feet in these seventeen malls.

The name of the company’s retail business subsidiary, Piramyd Retail Ltd, has been changed to Indiabulls Retail Services Ltd. The Piramyd stores has been accordingly rebranded as Indiabulls Megastore and Indiabulls Mart.

Dubai-based luxury real estate developer DAMAC Properties has appointed local agents in Gujarat to harness the investment opportunities in the region. The company has signed up around 60 agents across India, mostly in metros.

These include two Ahmedabad-based and one from Baroda. The initiative has been taken by the company to market and sell its international properties to Indian buyers.

“We are proud to have appointed agents in India. Apart from three in Gujarat, we have signed agents in important cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Gurgaon. As the potential is high here, we wanted to touch each corner of of the country through a network of experienced agents,” said founder & chairman, DAMAC Holding, Hussain Sajwani. “We will provide our agents all the necessary information and training to sell our properties.”

The company is also considering investment options in the subcontinent along with marketing its current projects. “We are looking at all the major cities in India and we will earmark investments as soon as the feasibility study is over,” said the CEO of DAMAC Properties.

Foreign fund house CLSA Ltd on Monday sold shares worth about Rs 35 crore in Indiabulls Securities Limited on NSE.

Further, MindTree Consulting bought shares worth nearly Rs 2.2 crore in AztecSoft today on the NSE.

In a bulk deal, CLSA sold 31.8 lakh shares in Indiabulls Securities for an average price of Rs 110.15 per share. MindTree Consulting in another bulk deal acquired about three lakh shares in AztecSoft for an average price of Rs 73.55 per piece.

Property is a lifetime investment. When a person makes decision to buy a house, he/she thinks for the market price of that locality and the existing rate trend. If we talk about the scenario these days, sales of real estate have crashed but prices have not come down considerably. Further downside is projected which will be healthy for the sector.

If prices rise, they must come down. It happened in equity and now it is real estate. After giving huge returns for more than two or three years the market has entered a slowdown period.

The slowdown today is result of prices having risen too fast and low interest rates further boosting demand. However, not only have home prices peaked, interest rates have also soared. This has weakened sentiment and buyers have turned more careful. Property is a long-term investment and you can expect 25 – 35% IR returns.

One reason why real estate sector has not crashed is because on an average, the sector has grown twice the GDP growth rate. So, if the economy continues to grow at 9%, real estate will grow at 15- 20%.High interest rates have been another bane. Homeowners who took floating loans have been hit the hardest

Hyper City Retail, part of Mumbai-based K Raheja Corp, which also owns the Shoppers Stop chain of department stores, has called off plans to launch convenience formats, ExpressCity, announced last year. The retailer is instead shifting its growth plans to focus on the big box format and multi-channel retailing.
Officials said it made better business sense to focus on larger formats since the profit margins in convenience formats were too low. The current crop of convenience formats, including Subhiksha, Reliance Fresh and Spencers, are struggling with the challenges of operating a low-margin grocery business in the face of spiraling real estate costs, high supply-chain costs and tough competition from the traditional formats.
Hyper City CEO Andrew Levermore said: “The experiment with the convenience format has been put on the back burner for now. It is clear that the Hyper City format delivers greater returns than the small formats in the retail space, so we have decided to expand Hyper City. We may revisit the small convenience format experiment at some point in the future.” Sources said huge rentals charged by property developers made low-margin businesses unviable.
As a result, retailers are grappling with the issue of delayed property developments and challenges of seizing the right locations at the right price. Industry players say the retail business has been impacted by spiraling real estate costs and a weak back-end and supply-chain.
Currently, the company is accelerating the roll-out of seven additional big format stores this year. Its maiden Hyper City store at Malad in Mumbai has completed two years and the company recently launched a multi-channel, catalogue and internet retailing format, Hyper City Argos. It had set up its first convenience format ExpressCity in Jaipur as a market tester.
In mid-2007, Hyper City Retail had announced plans to roll out as many as 300 smaller grocery stores in the next four years. ExpressCity was to sell vegetables, fruit and food items and the stores were estimated to be spread over 3,500-5,000 square feet.
The company had announced plans to stock pre-cut and refrigerated fruits and vegetables, apart from refrigerated ready-to-cook food products and 12 meal options as well. After the test-launch in Jaipur, the original plan was to launch four additional stores and then work on a pan-India presence.