| Vatika Group, a Delhi-based realty firm, has divested 10.75 per cent for raising $250 million (Rs 1,000 crore) as private equity investments from Wachovia Bank, Baer Capital and Goldman Sachs. The deal estimates the valuation of the privately held Vatika at around Rs 9,302 crore.
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| This is the first private equity investment in Vatika, which is planning its maiden public issue in 2009.
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| Vatika’s valuation at Rs 9,302 crore is higher than the market capitalisation of some listed bigwigs such as Bangalore-based Sobha Developers (Rs 6,269 crore) and Purvankara (8,284 crore); its Delhi peers such as Parsvnath Developers (Rs 6,398 crore), Omaxe (Rs 7,111 crore) and AnantRaj (Rs 8,557 crore) and the Mumbai-headquartered companies such as Akruti City (Rs 7,705 crore).
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| “The infusion of funding by world’s leading financial Institutions will help us in adding value to our existing projects, further consolidation of our land banks and acquisition of new projects at other locations in the country,” said Gaurav Bhalla, director Vatika.
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| His father, Anil Bhalla, had founded the company in the late 1980s. Prior to that, the family had interests in coal in Kolkata.
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| The disbursement of the funds has already commenced and will be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2008. According to industry experts, this deal shows that foreign investors are still gung-ho on Indian real estate.
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| “There is interest, but the problem lies in finding opportunities. Till last week, the common perception was that companies such as DLF and Unitech do not like PE investors. But even that has changed,” said one analyst.
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| Last week, DLF had sold 49 per cent stake in seven residential projects to a Merrill Lynch & Co entity for Rs 1,480 crore, making this as one of the largest foreign direct investment in the Indian real estate sector.
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| “Many deals that might have got stuck due to valuations on account of a correction in the property market are likely to go through now. So we might hear a slew of announcements in the next few months,” said Sanjeev Krishan, executive director, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
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| According to Cushman&Wakefield, foreign investors have raised nearly $30 billion since March 2005 for investing in Indian real estate. Of this, approximately $3 billion has been deployed.
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| The company’s diversified real estate portfolio comprises group housing, corporate office complexes, infotech parks, special economic zones and integrated townships in Gurgaon, Ambala and Jaipur spread over 2,000 acres. |
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