Ajay Piramal's realty fund to launch two funds, exits Rs 440-cr projects

Indiareit Fund Advisors, which plans to gain from opportunities in Indian properties, will invest in residential properties, among others

Ajay Piramal Group-promoted realty fund manager, the Indiareit Fund Advisors plans to launch two real estate funds in the next six months to take advantage of opportunities in Indian properties.

Indiareit, which raised the Mumbai Redevelopment Fund recently, plans to kickstart fund raising for a Rs 750-crore domestic real estate fund on “full steam” from next month.

Indiareit has done an initial closure of Rs 50 crore and plans to hit the market to raise the remaining amount for its fifth domestic fund, said managing partner Khushru Jijina. The fund will invest in residential properties, among others.

It's planning to raise a $350-million offshore fund in the second quarter of 2013, but has scaled down the targeted corpus from $500 million to $350 million, Jijina said in an interaction with Business Standard.

It is working on finalising a corner stone investor in the new fund, he said.

“We believe in medium-sized funds, which help in sensible investments and getting good projects,” he said.

Indiareit has assets under management of Rs 4,800 crore from four domestic funds and an offshore fund of $200 million (around Rs 1,100 crore). It also manages $266 million (Rs 1,470 crore) third-party funds of Alternative Investment Market-listed realty fund Trinity Capital's India investments and a family office trust F&C REIT Property Management India.

Although Indiareit was planning to launch a $125-million rental yield fund, it is evaluating launching it, he said.

Meanwhile, Indiareit on Tuesday said it was exiting Rs 440 crore worth of investments from its earlier funds and one-third of party mandates.

Indiareit is making a partial exit from Paranjape Scheme’s Blue Ridge Project in Hinjewadi in Pune where the developer is selling a special economic zone to investor IDFC. Indiareit is getting around Rs 70 crore from the exit. It holds 30 per cent in the entire project.

It is exiting from two projects of Ariisto group in Mumbai, one a housing project in Santacruz and the other a mixed-use project in Goregaon, with returns of 21 per cent on its investment of Rs 140 crore. The developer is buying back the stake.