AsianInvesterAsianInvester

Indian real estate fund raises $100 million

Kotak plans a diverse strategy for investing its private equity property fund.
Kotak Mahindra Realty Fund has announced that its new Kotak India Real Estate Fund has closed its domestic tranche raising $100 million. It is a close-ended venture capital fund scheme under the SEBI Venture Capital regulations and has Kotak Mahindra Investments acting as the investment manager.

Further commitments of $60 million have been received, and the fate of those additional pledges awaits regulatory approval.

The Realty fund operates with a 2 and 20 fee structure and joins another Kotak private equity fund, the $160 million Kotak SEAF fund, that invests in broader small and medium enterprises.

This real estate fundÆs strategy is fourfold. Firstly it looks for co-investments with development companies at a project level, building residential, commercial and industrial properties. Secondly it makes equity investments in large/mid cap property companies.

Thirdly, it makes enterprise level transactions or sale and leaseback deals with companies that have liabilities connected to real estate. Fourthly, it does acquisition and work-out of non-performing loan potfolios that have underlying property collateral.

The CEO of the realty fund is S Sriniwasan, the former co-head of investment banking at Kotak Mahindra. The fundÆs CIO is Hari Krishna, who most recently was responsible for corporate finance and investments at Jones Lang La Salle in India and before that worked at CB Richard Ellis.

Kotak is one of IndiaÆs largest private wealth management companies, with about 35% of India's top 100 families' wealth under management ûresulting in AUM in excess of $ 1.6 billion.
¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.