Foresight Smart lines up $60 million

Pavers Foresight Smart Ventures is setting up a footwear design development studio at Ambur in Tamil Nadu.

Mauritius-based Foresight Smart Ventures, the flagship company of the London-based $500 million Foresight Group, is planning to invest around $60 million (over Rs 266 crore) in real estate, retail and in footwear research and development in the country.

Speaking to Business Standard, Utsav Seth, managing director, Foresight Smart Ventures, said they had formed a new company — Aditya Moda Reality — in tieup with the Delhi-based Rs 1,000 crore Agarwal Group to execute real estate projects in the metros. For instance, the two partners are promoting a property comprising 57 luxury apartments, likely to be completed by March 2009, in Ghaziabad. The project would see an investment of around $5 million.

Similarly, a 2.5 million sft commercial complex is to be developed on 19 acres on NH24. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2013 with an investment of $70 million, of which Foresight will invest $30 million.

In the footwear segment, Pavers Foresight Smart Ventures (PFSV), a joint venture between the Foresight group and England’s leading footwear retailer Pavers, is in the process of setting up a footwear design development studio at Ambur in Tamil Nadu, with an investment of around $5 million. The studio is expected to commence operations by October this year and will be linked with other design and production centres in Europe, Brazil and the UK.

“The studio will focus on new designs and will be the first-of-its-kind in the country. It will provide a unique advantage in developing European comfort footwear customised to the needs of the Indian consumers,” said Seth.

Currently, the company is sourcing over half a million pairs of footwear from India, of which 99 per cent is sourced from Tamil Nadu. By 2010, the firm is planning to source one million pairs every year, he said.