Century realty launches Rs. 100cr VC fund

The South India based real estate player, Century Real Estate Holdings, with its headquarters in Bangalore is all set to launch a venture capital fund with a corpus of about Rs.100cr. Initially the company will generate funds from family and friends and latter on will tap the larger investors' community and will invest the planned fund on the pre development of land parcels it owns across southern states where it has complete control over development rights, an official sources said, claiming that the player had generated Rs. 370cr through non convertible debentures from Kotak Realty Fund and JM Financial, a non banking finance company. In addition to this, it has also generated funds to the tune of $200 million from Goldman Sachs during 2008-09 the severe slowdown period of the decade.

The renowned real estate group, which is owned by veteran Dayanand Pai, will be the latest real estate player to set up a fund. Prior to this, the construction giant Shapoorji Pallonji had floated a $500 million private equity fund mainly focused on real estate. The player had managed to raise $250 million to invest in development of projects for the group and also for third party projects in the realty segment. Other realty players including Hubtown, earlier known as Ackruti City and Kolte had tied up with foreign partners to set up their own funds but have been unsuccessful in generating money. In fact the fund raising is a big challenge unless there is a proven track record as investors are not looking at India as a healthy asset class currently when differentiation in terms of strategy and ability to source deals will be vital elements that are being closely scrutinized, commented, Managing Director, Lones Lang LaSalle, Ambar Maheshwari.