Hyderabad-based real estate private equity fund Pragnya Advisors Pvt Ltd has invested $5 million in Bangalore-based Habitat Ventures’ project in Banerghatta.
T Srinagesh, chief executive officer (CEO) of the fund said, “We have done one more investment in Banerghatta with Habitat, but there is still some land aggregation taking place".
The investment has been made to acquire a land parcel with the development partner.
Pragnya has invested $5 million at present in the project and the developer has acquired close to 9.2 acres, clearing the minimum foreign direct investment (FDI) compliant project norms for residential development. It is further looking to aggregate another small part. Pragnya’s investment could increase in the project as part of the final deal.
The fund expects the land acquisition to be fully done in next three-four months.
Srinagesh said, “We do development with our existing partners and we still have money left from our fund for investment in other four projects. We are actively looking at projects in the mid-sized residential segment.”
Its first investment in Bangalore was with Habitat Ventures Ltd for a villament project comprising around 138 villaments, along with a small commercial component, in Whitefield area. The project will be up for delivery in April 2014.
Pragnya has also invested another $5 million in a commercial development in Colombo.
Pragnya had raised its second fund in 2010 and it invests an average of $5-$10 million in each project. The fund's corpus is close to $50 million and its first fund has made nearly eight investments.
The fund typically likes to invest in the southern market. It marks Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad as the focus cities and has plans to extend this to Pune.
(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)
