KEF Holdings to invest Rs 2,000 crore in India

Will focus on construction, healthcare industries; plans to set up a real estate fund

Dubai-based KEF Holdings, promoted by non-resident Indian businessman Faizal E Kottikollon, plans to invest around Rs 2,000 crore in this country to set up three factories, one each in north India, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The company specialises in offsite construction technology. It also plans to launch a real estate fund.

Kottikollon, here to attend the Great Lakes Institute of Management 11th convocation, told this newspaper that after the new government took charge at the Centre last year, there was hope and confidence among investors outside India.

“The government's vision is positive, bureaucrats are positive, there is a business-friendly approach, though on-ground development is not visible,” he said. “The key game changers would be GST (the long-awaited national goods and services tax) and land Bills for investors like us.”

KEF is investing around Rs 1,100 crore to set up an industrial park at Tamil Nadu and a 500-bed hospital in Kerala. The 42-acre KEF Industrial Park at Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu, is this country's only off-site manufacturing facility for construction, it says. Investment in the project is Rs 500-600 crore, of which around Rs 400 crore has been put in. The Rs 550-crore hospital project is designed to be built with precast and modular construction technology. It is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2016.

“We are now planning to set up three more similar parks (like Krishnagiri) with Rs 500-600 crore each over the next four years,” said Kottikollon. The company is looking at Delhi or Rajasthan, to cater to the National Capital Region, and Maharastra and Gujarat to cater for regional markets.  

The Krishnagiri industrial park is to see manufacture of entire building components such as columns, beams, hollow core slabs, wall panels, staircases, windows, doors, bathroom units and facades. The facility will help cut build times by as much as 50 per cent and costs by up to 30 per cent, claimed Kottikollon.

“We are committed to the Indian government’s ‘Make in India’ vision, and will focus on infrastructure, education and health care,” he said.

As mentioned earlier, KEF's investment arm is looking at launching a fund to focus on Indian real estate. Kottikollon said the amount would be finalised in the next six months. The arm is supported by various banks and institutions such as Citibank, Credit Suisse, UBS, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, DBS, Barclays, Bank Safra Sarasin, Coutts and State Bank of Travancore.

Its global investment pool comprises fixed income assets -- bonds, bond funds, deposits and perpetual bonds -- across the US, Europe, the Gulf, Southeast Asia and India. The company has a diversified equity portfolio spread across these and other countries, and some private equity assets in the Gulf region and the US. Of the $750 million portfolio, around $150 mn is in India. It is managed from Singapore and Dubai, and invests in equity markets and mutual funds.