Ravi Pillai to buy $100-mn stake in Trump, World Trade Centre projects

Investment will be in SPVs floated by Pune-based Panchshil Realty

Ravi Pillai, the NRI billionaire based in Bahrain, is picking up stake worth close to $100 million in special purpose vehicle floated by Pune-based realtor Panchshil Realty to build two iconic properties in that city – Trump Towers and World Trade Centre.

Pillai, who is making key strategic investments in the Indian hospitality sector, is understood to have firmed up investments close to $90 million in the SPV and which may be scaled to $100 million.  

Senior management officials of RP Group, owned by Ravi Pillai, confirmed the move to invest close to $90 million in the SPV floated by Panchshil Realty.

Panchsil Realty has been working closely with various investors including blue-chip private equity investors such as Blackstone, Ireo, Morgan Stanley and Xander among others and RP Group is the latest to align with this group.  Panchshil Realty is among Pune's premier real estate developer having commenced its operations in 2000. The company has delivered over 14.5 million sq ft of prime real estate over the last decade and currently has 17.5 million sqft under development across multiple asset classes.

Panchshil Realty announced the pact with The Trump Group during August 2012 and the project spread across 2.5 acres will come up at the upmarket locality of Kalyani Nagar in Pune. Trump Towers Pune will be one of the tallest residential towers in Pune and will have two towers of 22 storeys each having 44 luxury condominiums.  Each floor houses one spacious apartment of approximately 6,000 sq ft with five bedrooms and an exclusive home theatre room.  The project is slated to be ready by 2015.

The World Trade Centre being developed by Panchshil in Pune, is spread over 20 acres and is located at the gateway of Pune’s eastern IT corridor, Kharadi. Consisting of 4 towers with development size of 1.6 million square feet, World Trade Centre Pune will house a mix of small corporate offices in two towers, mid-sized offices in the second, and a single-client built-to-suit facility in the third.

Mahesh Pandey, a senior management official of RP Group said that they are looking at more opportunities in the hospitality sector in India and are looking at owning a bouquet of close to 15 properties in India as part of this initiative from the current six. RP Group over the past week aligned with ITC Group in India, wherein ITC will be managing five hotel properties of RP Group in India and Dubai under WelcomHotel and Fortune brands.  During late 2011, RP Group acquired Leela Group’s Kovalam property in Kerala for Rs 500 crore and which will be managed by Leela Group.

“We are closely looking at developments in the hospitality sector and we will be investing substantially.... but we are not in a hurry,” Pandey added. He further clarified that they had received an offer to buy majority stake worth close to Rs 350 crore in a property in Bangalore being managed by Four Seasons, but they will not be going ahead with that.