Singapore property funds look to invest $100m in Indian SEZ
Singapore property funds Ascendas and Mapletree Investments are in talks to commit $100million to a special economic zone (SEZ) near the Indian city of Pune.
The funds are seeking to buy a majority stake in the Blue Ridge SEZ, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. The funds have been negotiating with Indiareit Fund Advisors, an INR37 billion ($700 million)-property fund managed by Indian billionaire Ajay Piramal, and Indian real estate developer Paranjape Schemes.
Shashank Paranjape, managing director of Paranjape Schemes, denied that talks were taking place with the two funds. Indiareit and Mapletree also declined to comment, while Ascendas said in an emailed statement that the company does not comment on market speculation.
Last year, Indiareit and Paranjape had held talks to sell a majority stake in the project to Tata Realty Fund, a property investment arm of conglomerate Tata Group.
It was reported in September 2011 that Indiareit had invested INR2 billion from its INR9.3 billion domestic fund in a luxury residential project in Mumbai, which has been developed by Omkar Realtors and Developers. Ramesh Jogani, Indiareit's CEO, said that the demand for capital among local developers was still high.
India's SEZs are popular with real estate investors. Earlier this month, an affiliate of The Blackstone Group has acquired a firm that owns DLF Ackruti Info Parks, another Pune-based SEZ, for INR8.1 billion. Meanwhile, a fund recently announced by mortgage lender LIC Housing Finance, will allocate half its IRN5 billion corpus to companies developed SEZs and industrial and IT parks.
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