Anuj Puri to launch realty-focused NBFC

Anuj Puri, the former chairman of property consultant JLL India who recently bought the fund management business of his former employer, is looking forward to launch a real estate-focused non-banking finance company (NBFC) and invest Rs 300 crore through their second fund.

“The NBFC is synergistic to both our private equity and real estate broking business. We can do debt deals through NBFC,” said Anuj Puri, chairman of ANAROCK Property Consultants.

Puri’s ANAROCK joins a league of property-focused NBFCs such as Piramal Finance, Xander Finance, KKR’s India Asset Finance and Altico Capital, which have been the most active NBFCs in the market.

“We will launch the NBFC this year and do asset-based financing. We have sufficient domain knowledge in this area,” said Sandip Kundu, chief executive officer at ANAROCK Investment Advisors, the fund management firm set up by Puri.

According to a recent report by property advisory Knight Frank, NBFCs have gained significant market share over the past two years and currently contribute around 18 per cent of the total institutional funding requirement of this sector. While NBFCs have gained a larger share, from 12 per cent in 2015 to 18 per cent in 2016, PE funding has dropped from 61 per cent to 58 per cent in the same period.

NBFCs lend between 12-18 per cent rate and they lend for refinancing existing loans, last mile financing, buying land and so on.

ANAROCK took over the two funds from JLL Segregated Funds Group — the Rs 160 crore Residential Opportunities Fund-I (ROF-I) and the Rs 300 crore Residential Opportunities Fund-2 (ROF-II)While the first fund had been deployed and three exits had happened, ANAROCK would deploy corpus from the second fund this year, Kundu said.

ROF-I has invested in the projects of Bengaluru-based Assetz Property, and Chennai-based developers Vishwakarma Real Estates & Constructions and Plaza Group. 

 According to sources, Puri is also planning to raise a fund of $300 million from offshore investors to invest in property.

“We will invest mid-sized residential properties which are self-liquidating,” Kundu said, adding that they would do a mix of mezzanine and structured debt deals.