Mumbai-based non-banking finance company Oasis Securities Ltd is acquiring 49 per cent stake in Azure Capital Advisors Pvt Ltd, the investment manager for real estate-focused private equity fund India Realty Fund I, as per a stock market disclosure. The transaction value stands undisclosed.
The company did not say if the stake is being purchased from an existing shareholder or through infusion of funds into the investment firm.
In July 2012, Bangalore-based realtor Sushil Mantri, who runs a property development firm called Mantri Developers Pvt Ltd, had acquired 51 per cent stake in the company. Mantri was not immediately available to share more details on the transaction.
Azure Capital was formed by Shailesh Ghorpade, along with half a dozen other partners, in early 2010 with a focus to invest in the Indian realty market. Ghorpade, the managing director and CEO of the fund, had quit energy major Suzlon to start this venture.
When the fund was initially launched, it was looking to tap the redevelopment sector by undertaking projects on its own and planned to raise Rs 500 crore, which failed to take off. Coupled with bad market conditions, the firm’s maiden fund settled at a small corpus of Rs 50 crore.
Azure Capital currently manages Rs 50 crore under its first fund IRF I, from which it has invested in two projects – one in Bangalore and the other in Gujarat. The Bangalore project is for a 20 acre villa development and in Gujarat, it has invested in a plotted development located on the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor.
It had applied to the market regulator SEBI for its second fund, IRF II, and has further plans for a third fund called IRF III. IRF II is proposed to be a rental yield fund with focus on yield-generating office space properties in top seven cities in India.
Oasis Securities is engaged in the business of investments, depository, broking and trading in securities. It is controlled by Bagri family led by Indra Kumar Bagri.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
