India’s ASK Group reaches first close on offshore real estate fund

First close commitments came from three investors, with ASK Group contributing $5 million.

Sunil Rohokale, the group's managing director, expects a final close by March 2015. It will focus on large institutions, pension funds, endowments, fund-of-funds and family offices in this next stage of fundraising.

"The current fund raising environment is challenging but the fact that the ASK Group has raised offshore money now proves that investors are willing to associate with a group having sound and focused investment strategy," said Rohokale, The Business Standard reported.

The fund, which is managed by a Singapore-registered subsidiary of ASK Group, is looking to invest more than INR5 billion in the next 12 months, primarily in Pune, Bangalore and Chennai. Commitments to individual projects will be in the range of INR1-1.5 billion ($16.2-24.3 million).

ASK Group's real estate arm was set up in 2009 and has since raised two residential property funds. The Ask Real Estate Special Opportunities Portfolio - I raised INR3.26 billion in 2009 and is now fully committed. Its 2011 vintage successor vehicle received commitments of INR10 billion and has so far made commitments to four projects.

There has also been one full exit from Fund I - from the ATS One Hamlet project in NCR, which delivered a return of 2.45x.

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• Topics
• Fundraising
• Real estate
• Real estate
• South Asia
• India
• Real estate
• Fundraising