Milestone to raise Rs 1,000 cr under commercial fund

Private equity firm Milestone Capital Advisors plans to raise around Rs 1,000 crore under a commercial fund which would invest in pre-leased commercial assets in metros, a top company official said.
Under the fund, titled Milestone Commercial Advantage Fund, the company plans to invest in assets like commercial offices, IT/ITES, industrial or warehousing and retail space.
"We are looking at raising around Rs 1,000 crore under this fund. This is however, at a planning stage currently but we hope to finalise it and launch it in the next 3-4 months," its Executive Vice Chairman Rubi Arya told PTI.
She said the investments will be made primarily in pre-leased assets generating periodic yields and capital appreciation on exit.

"We will invest in 4-6 projects which are either completely leased or pre-leased up to 60 per cent or at the last mile funding stage. We plan to invest in major metros like Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, NCR among others," Arya said.
She said the investment ticket sizes would range between Rs 50-200 crore.

"The fund will be for five years and we will exit as and when we see the right opportunity. This time we may also look at the option of listing the projects on Real Estate Investment Trust (REITs) for exits," Arya said.
In 2008, the company had raised Rs 1,500 crore to invest in pre-leased commercial projects. Milestone has invested in 13 projects so far and even exited from eight assets.

The firm will continue to invest in residential projects under its Milestone Opportunities Fund 10 of Rs 500 crore for three and half years with a provision for up to one year extension.
The company has so far raised Rs 150 crore of the fund. "We have commenced its maiden investment of Rs 40 crore in Rajesh Lifespaces located in Thane. In addition to this, the investment committee has also approved 4 additional deals in Mumbai, Bangalore and NCR region, the talks are now at an advanced stage and we hope to close this deals in next few months," she added.

Milestone has so far raised Rs 3,700 crore across nine funds and has made 57 investments across India and has exited from 42 projects. While 30 are complete exits, the remaining 12 are partial exits.