Bengaluru-based real estate investment manager Neev Capital has cut a first cheque of Rs 25 crore (around $3.7 million) in debt funding to an undisclosed affordable- to mid-market residential project in the city even as the fund is looking at a second close of the Rs 200 crore (around $30 million) fund in two weeks, its spokesperson told VCCircle.
The fund, backed by Manipal Global Education chairman TV Mohandas Pai and chief executive of Manipal Education and Medical Group Ranjan Pai and other investors, is looking at raising a corpus of Rs 200 crore and a green-shoe option of Rs 50 crore.
Since it closed a first close at Rs 160 crore in the middle of the year, the fund has to complete the final close within February, the spokesperson said.
Neev has an investment strategy with a sweet spot of Rs 20-25 crore in the mid-market residential projects based out of Bengaluru that would get completed within two years, he said.
Mint first reported that the fund has invested in the project.
The fund targets risk-adjusted returns across the entire spectrum of real estate opportunities through a combination of debt and equity investment strategies.
Ashwinder Raj Singh, CEO - Residential Services, JLL India, said, “In the past one year, there have been a few positive and potentially long-lasting changes in the Indian real estate. The passing of RERA (Real Estate Regulation and Development Act 2016), the Benami Transactions Act and now the demonetisation move will ensure that going forward, the sector will lose much of its historic taint and become more transparent''.
Even global investors have shown renewed interest for the real estate market in India, especially after the new government under Narendra Modi took charge in 2014. On the back of spike in interest, capital flow in the sector hit a new height of $2.8 billion equity money in 2015, according to VCCEdge, the data research platform of News Corp VCCircle.
The capital flow has since then slowed down. Overall, the number of private investment deals in the realty space went down by a fifth to 120 in the first nine months of this year compared to January-September 2015, largely due to the sharp slide in private equity funding in the sector.
Realty sector attracted a total of $2.57 billion across private debt and equity in the first nine months of the year, according to VCCEdge, down 41% compared to last year.
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