Piramal Realty aims to double portfolio in 2 years, in talks to raise funds

Piramal Group's real estate arm Piramal Realty plans to double its portfolio to 30 million sq ft in the next two years and is also in talks with global investors for raising funds, a top company official said.

The company currently has over 15 million sq ft of saleable area under development across five projects and plans to take it to nearly 30 million sq ft, which will be a mix of residential and commercial real estate.

"In the year 2018, we clocked nearly Rs 3,400 crore of revenues from our various projects and sold an inventory worth Rs 80,000 crore in the last calendar year.

"We want to continue expanding our portfolio and we are looking at either outright buyouts or through entering into joint venture or joint development with developers," the company's founder Anand Piramal told reporters here.

He further said the company is in talks with global funds for raising money to invest in both commercial and residential projects.

However, Piramal did not divulge any details on the same.

At present, two global private equity majors Goldman Sachs and Warburg Pincus have invested around USD 434 million in the company at the entity level, which is one of the largest PE investments in Indian real estate.

"There is a lot of interest of global funds in the Indian real estate market. Traditionally it was more focused on the commercial side, mainly because of the characteristics of the asset and guaranteed returns. However, we are now seeing the shift towards residential real estate as well," he said.

In the last two years, out of the total PE inflows in the country, Singapore-based funds comprised 41 per cent or USD 3.5 billion. This was followed by the US and Canada-based PE investors that have a cumulative contribution of USD 3.8 billion in the last two years.

Asked if the company would be expanding to other cities, Piramal said, "There is still a lot of opportunity in and around Mumbai especially for residential real estate and we will continue focusing here. For our commercial portfolio, we may look at opportunities outside as well."