Segregated Funds Group, the private equity arm of real estate consultancy firm JLL, has partly exited its first investment through its maiden fund Residential Opportunities Fund - I, clocking an internal rate of return (IRR) of 30 per cent, the company said in a statement.
Interestingly, the firm has part exited the investment within a year. It had invested Rs 24 crore ($4 million) in a residential project of Bangalore-based developer Assetz Property as recent as February this year.
The project is spread across six acres and located near Marathahalli junction in East Bangalore.
“We are happy to achieve this kind of momentum in our divestments for our investors. This is in line with our fund investment themes. This exit is demonstrative of the progress made in this project. It has seen steady sales and development,” said Mridul Upreti, chief executive officer, JLL Segregated Funds Group.
Realty PE funds are limited by three-year investment lock-ins but those rules do not apply to domestic funds which allows JLL's fund to mark a liquidity event so soon.
Moreover, the fund intends to return money to investors as quickly as possible. Although the fundraise was completed recently it had started the process much earlier and the fund has already crossed mid-point of its five-year investment tenure.
Recently, the fund invested Rs 20 crore ($3 million) in a residential project of Chennai-based developer Plaza Group. This marked the second deal of the fund.
Early this year, JLL made the final close of its maiden real estate fund in the country by raising Rs 160.75 crore ($26 million). When launched in 2012, the fund had a target corpus of Rs 300 crore and was planning to invest across 10-15 deals.
On an average the fund is looking to invest Rs 25-30 crore per project.
Assetz Property has developed over 3.5 million sq ft across IT, office and residential sectors and is currently developing over 7 million sq ft of predominantly residential projects across Bangalore.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
