Private equity firm Milestone Capital Advisors has launched its third domestic fund, targeting to raise Rs 500 crore, focussed on the realty sector. The firm has hit the fund-raising trail for the third fund.
"We have just launched the fund which is expected to be closed in March,” Milestone Real Estate Managing Partner, Ashish Joshi told VCCircle.
According to him, this fund, which has a life of 3 .5 years, will be investing in realty projects under development.
“There are significant opportunities in the real estate sector and we would like to invest in 5 or 6 top cities in India,” he said. Milestone is raising the fund from domestic investors and will invest at SPV level. The firm is planning to close the fund by March or April. If the fund raising is not completed by that time, it will be the first cloing, Joshi said.
Milestone Capital currently has two domestic and one overseas realty schemes. The two domestic schemes, MDS-I and MDS-II, have a committed corpus of Rs 229 crore and Rs 503 crore, respectively. Milestone Fund LLC, the offshore fund, has a committed corpus of $82 million (Rs 380 crore).
The domestic funds have invested in over seven projects in Chennai, one each in Hyderabad, Jaipur and Kolkota, four in Nagpur and three logistics parks including the ones in Biwandi (Maharashtra) and Ahmedabad, Joshi said.
Milestone also has a joint venture for real estate rental-yield projects with IL&FS Investment Managers, the only listed private equity player in India. Milestone holds a 40% stake in the JV, IL&FS Milestone Realty Advisors Ltd, which has picked up a 74% stake in 247 HCC Park, a 1.8 million square feet commercial property located in Vikhroli in Mumbai at around Rs 575 crore.
Milestone Capital also has JV with Religare Venture Capital (part of Religare Enterprises) for an education and healthcare focused fund. This fund has managed to raise Rs 355 crore from domestic investors and is also planning to raise another $250 million from overseas investors.
Milestone recently decided to scrap scrap its joint venture, Capstone Capital Services Pvt Ltd, that it formed with scam-hit financial institution Money Matters Financial Services. Last February, Milestone entered in to a JV with Rajesh Sharma-led Money Matters to form Capstone Capital, a Rs 400-crore Special Opportunities Fund – I with a tenure of five years.
