Xander looking at 35% stake in Indiabulls arm for Rs 800 cr

In August 2010, Indiabulls bought two parcels of land from the National Textile Corp for over Rs 2,000 cr in an aggressive auction process

Global Investment firm Xander Group is in talks with Indiabulls Real Estate to buy a 35 per cent stake in the latter’s arm, Indiabulls InfraEstate, for around Rs 800 crore, said a person involved in the talks.

The deal values the entity at around Rs 2,300 crore.

Indiabulls InfraEstate owns two parcels of land in the Worli area of Mumbai — Bharat Textile Mills and Poddar Mills — which together have 10.6 acres. Indiabulls Real Estate is developing its Bleu project on this land.

An Indiabulls executive confirmed the news but said, "The due diligence is on. We are a couple of weeks away from concluding the deal.”

A Xander spokesperson said, "As a policy, Xander does not comment on market speculation."

This is the second round of funding Indiabulls is getting for this arm. Earlier this year, IL&FS Investment Managers, the private equity arm of IL&FS group bought a 9.4 per cent stake in Indiabulls InfraEstate for Rs 200 crore, valuing the arm for around Rs 2100 crore. In August 2010, Indiabulls bought two parcels of land from National Textile Corp for Rs 2,000 crore in an aggressive auction process.

“The deal suggests that funds are interested in prime residential spaces. Mumbai and Delhi are doing well in terms of residential sales. That’s why private equity (PE) funds are putting money there. It also demonstrates that developers who have wherewithal to complete projects attract investors,” said Ambar Maheshwari, managing director, corporate finance at Jones Lang LaSalle.

However, overall PE deals in real estate are declining. PE flow to the realty sector has dropped 15 per cent in the first three quarters of 2012, from the same period last year, on the back of regulatory and investment concerns, said a report by Cushman and Wakefield, an international consultancy.

“The fall in number of deals was mainly due to a lot of concerns on the government policy front coupled with an uncertain investment scenario, valuation and continued focus on exits for some vintage funds”, said Sanjay Dutt, executive managing director - South Asia, Cushman & Wakefield in a statement released yesterday.