Morgan Stanley's India real estate head to spin out own funds

Naik confirmed to LiveMint that he will launch the venture with Robert Naso, managing director and head of Asia Pacific asset management at Morgan Stanley Real Estate. Both are currently on gardening leave, but they are plan to establish the fund's headquarters in Singapore. The vehicle will focus on residential and commercial office properties in cities including Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.

Naik has been at Morgan Stanley since 2008, and previously worked at Lehman Brothers India. Morgan Stanley is said to have invested approximately $750 million in Indian real estate properties, and may invest an addition $250 million by the end of the fiscal year.

Morgan Stanley is reportedly among the suitors to purchase real estate in central Mumbai from domestic textile firm Alok Industries for $200 million, competing against the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. among others.

AVCJ earlier reported that India's real estate space was a key focus for private equity investors in 2010, but activity petered after the start of 2011. According to Venture Intelligence, private equity investment into real estate accounted for 14 investments in the quarter ending September 2011, raking in $388 million across the eight deals with disclosed values. This was also down on the activity seen in the third quarter of 2010, in which PE invested in 21 targets, investing $744 million across 20 deals with disclosed values.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• People
• Real estate
• India
• Real estate
• Morgan Stanley
• Spin outs