Year's Biggest Private Equity Investment Deals in Real Estate

Private Equity (PE) investments in the Indian real estate sector have seen a steep rise in the last six calendar years (2010-2016). The highest PE investment was seen in Calendar Year 2015 with an investment of US $2,065 million. However, the number of deals this year saw a dip with only 73 deals while the maximum deals (86) had happened in CY 2014. In the six-year tenure, the biggest PE investment was made by Brookfield Asset Management Inc in Unitech Ltd in IT Park and special economic zone (SEZ) business segment. The $563 million investment was made in 2014.

As per PropTiger Datalabs research, PE investment worth US $717 million took place in the real estate sector until September 2016 (Q3). The highest investment of US $361 million, took place during Q2. Here are some of the top deals of PE investments in the real estate sector until September 2016:

• PE firm Warburg Pincus invested US $ 268.4 million in Piramal Realty for a minority stake in the company.
• Real estate private equity fund of the Kotak group, Kotak Realty Fund, has raised US$ 250 million from institutional investors for equity investments in realty projects across India's top six property markets including Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai over the next 24 to 36 months.
• Piramal Fund Management, along with Altico Capital India Pvt Ltd., invested US $77 million dollars in Bengaluru's real estate firm Century Real Estate Holdings Pvt Ltd. The two-part investment includes a major investment divided into two equal parts among both the investors, while an additional amount has been invested by Piramal in construction finance, as quoted by Mint. The invested amount will be used by Century Real Estate for the construction of nine projects and make land payments.
• Asset management company Blackstone Advisors India invested US $70 million in a commercial project of Salarpuria Sarrva Realty LLP. Located at Knowledge Park, which is an office park Hyderabad, it is the first investment by the firm in the city. The project is being developed into an office space of about six million square feet and its construction is likely to be completed within four to five years.
• Piramal Fund Management Pvt Ltd. invested about US $63 million in a residential project of Lodha Developers Pvt Ltd. The project, Lodha Azzure, has a saleable area of more than 500,000 square feet. This is the first time that in terms of sales, Lodha has raised money from Piramal.
• Apollo Asia RE Singapore Private Limited and realty firm Salarpuria Sattva Group have entered into a JV to acquire 100 per cent stake in two real estate projects at Bangalore and Vadodara from a consortium of offshore investors in a deal worth US $ 41 million.
• Singapore's sovereign wealth fund organisation GIC Pvt Ltd. invested US $49 million in Viviana Mall of Sheth Developers and Realtors India, a subsidiary of Sheth Corp. With 49 per cent stake, GIC added the retail asset to its real estate portfolio. The mall spreads over 50 acres and has a multiplex, large and mini anchor stores and many inline stores.

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