Tag Archives: Business Partnership

Pune Project got Investment of $13M from Infinite India Real Estate Fund

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JM Financial group promoted Infinite India Investment Management has invested $13 million through its realty fund Infinite India Real Estate Fund in Pune-based developer Kumar Urban Development Ltd’s (KUL) residential project, said sources close to the development.

The source privy to the development said the transaction has been inked recently for an equity stake in a high end residential project which would have developable area of 1million sqft in Pune. The exact size of the stake sale could not be ascertained. Infinite India Investment Management declined to comment on the transaction. When contacted by VCCircle, KUL chairman Lalit Kumar Jain confirmed that the firm has raised capital but did not immediately share name of the investor or the deal amount.

At present KUL have 12 on going residential projects in Pune, five in Mumbai and one in Panchgani, all in Maharashtra. Two years ago KUL was looking to raise Rs 450 crore through an initial public offering (IPO) which didn’t materialise. Half of the amount was to be used to repay high cost debt taken from Standard Chartered and ICICI Bank among others at an average debt cost of 15 per cent. It then came up with the plan to raise private equity funding for its projects and last year managed to rise close to $65 million for some of the projects.

 

Infinite India Investment Management had first launched the realty fund as an equal equity joint venture with SRS Fund and it had plans to invest $400million. JM Financial bought out the JV partner’s stake in April 2010 and since then it has been investing on its own.

Some of its previous deals include $6 million investment in a residential development project of Windshield Developers in Pune besides its agreement with PVR for buying out the multiplex chain’s property located in Phoenix Mills in Lower Parel, Mumbai for Rs 100 crore in May 2011.

 

Bengal Urban Land Policy: Seeks 30% Reservation for Low-Cost Housing

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The promise of Ma, Mati, and Manush governance by Mamata Banerjee may fall short of the second M-word, meaning land — at least for real estate developers in the state’s capital city. For, the West Bengal government has now decided to bring in an amendment to the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act (ULCA), 1976, an eyesore of developers for quite some time. The proposed alteration will stipulate the developers to reserve 30 per cent apartments in big housing projects for the low-income group (LIG). Industrialists have been seeking a total repeal of the Act, introduced in 1976 to prevent hoarding or excessive holding of land in urban centres.

According to the Act, the ceiling limit on vacant land in a category ‘A’ city like Kolkata is 7.5 cottah or about 500 square meters. The demand for repealing the ULCA was raised for the first time by Godrej Properties chairman Adi Godrej, at an industry meet within the first month of Banerjee taking over the chief minister’s office.

Much to the disappointment of the developers, urban development minister Firhad Hakim has now totally ruled out the possibility of repealing the Act. “We are not going to abolish the Land Ceiling Act,” he said. “Instead, we will give permission to developers for purchase of land beyond ceiling, provided they reserve 30 per cent housing for low-income housing segment.”

As for the Trinamool dispensation, it has also decided to do away with the concept of public-private partnership (PPP) — an idea pioneered by the earlier Left Front government under Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Instead, “the government will allocate land to the highest bidder and for the rest of the big projects the state will build on its own,” according to Hakim. Notably, in spite of the Land Ceiling Act, the earlier government had windfall gains by allotting land in prime areas of city.

For example, three prominent government agencies involved in land deals in and around Kolkata — the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA), Kolkata Municipal Corporation and West Bengal Housing Board— signed deals worth more than Rs 18,000 crore, for over 5,250 acres of land during the period in little over two years. In fact, KMDA was credited with signing deals, worth more thanRs 800 crore with real estate developers on a single day. “The process of land allotment slowed substantially over the last two years. First, it was due to elections,” said a city-based real estate developer. “Second, it was due to lack of vision and policy of the new government.”

In March,India Inc. invested $2.7 bn overseas.

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Overseas investments by Indian companies stood at USD 2.77 billion in March, up 37.6 percent over the previous month, with Binani Industries, Mercator Lines, HCL Technologies, Varun Shipping, Hexaware Technologies, and Tata Steel emerging as major investors.

As many as 489 overseas investment transactions were carried out by various companies in March, as per the Reserve Bank data released Wednesday. Binani Industries invested a total of USD 323.34 million in its two wholly-owned subsidiaries based in Luxembourg and the US that are involved in financial, real estate and manufacturing services.

Mercator Lines, which is into agriculture and mining, through its joint venture-Mercator Offshore PTE- invested USD 150.15 million in Singapore during the month, it said. ABG Shipyard, through its wholly-owned subsidiary invested USD 80 million in Singapore.

HCL Technologies, India’s fourth largest software exporter, invested USD 60 million in Bermuda through its wholly owned subsidiary for providing financial, insurance and real estate solutions.
Likewise, Varun Shipping which is into transport, storage and communication business invested USD 60 million via its JV in Cyprus.

Hexaware Technologies invested USD 38.7 million through its wholly-owned subsidiary in Germany to provide financial, insurance, real estate solutions, it said. Tata Steel invested USD 35.5 million in Singapore through its wholly-owned unit, it said.

Lemon Tree: To open 100 hotels in India by 2020.

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“By 2020 we plan to open 100 hotels in India with an inventory of around 10,000 rooms,” Lemon Tree Hotels Chairman and Managing Director Patu Keswani told reporters on the sidelines of the Hero Mind mine Summit 2012.

Lemon Tree Hotels is planing to open 100 hotels in India by 2020, with a total room capacity of 10,000.

The company also said it has put on hold plans to foray into real estate in partnership with US-based investment firm Warburg Pincus.

This year the company is opening two more hotels, he said without sharing details on the investment that would be required for the expansion.

Keswani, however, said the company plans to raise money from financial institutions or may even go public in the next two-three years. “In the next 2-3 years, we might look at public listing,” Keswani said.

At present, the company’s total room capacity is around 2,000. On the company’s proposed real estate foray, he said: “We have put that housing project in cold storage. It is not the good time to start a project like that.”

In April last year, the company had announced that it will foray into real estate with plans to invest over Rs 1,400 crore to launch housing projects in India in partnership with US-based investment firm Warburg Pincus. “We will wait for the Indian economy to become better and interest rates to come down…I do not see the situation improving in another 2 years,” he added.


Yatra Capital to Increase Investment In India

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Panama Property = Money
Photo by thinkpanamaEuronext-listed company, Yatra Capital managed by Saffron Capital Advisors, an Indian Real Estate Private Equity fund has announced to invest around 20 million Euros in India in FY10. The company plans to invest the Rs 115 cr in two deals in the domestic sector of real estate. The company has as of now invested about Rs 916 cr in 13 projects which include 2 entity-level details.

The weighted average Yatra Equity Fund covers 27 million square feet spread over nine cities. They have sold or pre let over 3 million square feet across various projects.

The chairman and Co-Founder, Yatra Capital, Mr. Christopher Wright said, “In India, one needs to be very careful on Real Estate investments as the market is volatile. After a drop in 2008-09, the realty sector is now moving up. The Indian economy is growing well making people more confident on future investments. We have invested 44% in residential projects, which would be our focus area in future. We always look at investing in affordable residential projects in tier I and II cities.”

Yatra has invested in 90 cr Residential Project and 97 cr Market City Retail Project at Pune, 115 cr in Riverbank Holdings, 91 cr in forum IT parks and 23 cr in Taj gateway at Kolkata, 160 cr in market city at Bangalore and 57 cr at Nashik.

It has entered partnership with Phoenix Mills for 5 various projects across Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai.

A presentation by Yatra to investors in March this year said, “Most markets have seen positive traction due to price cuts. However, developers have now started raising prices especially in Mumbai and the National Capital Region which has led to a slowdown in sales. Projects where pricing is realistic continue to enjoy healthy absorptions. The monetary environment tightening may impact the fund raising environment for many real estate companies still out to raise money. Investor enthusiasm for participation in realty IPOs remains muted.”