Goldman Sachs is in advanced stage of discussions to invest around Rs 800 crore in Bangalore-based real estate player Century Group, sources said. The real estate fund of Goldman Sachs is seen infusing liquidity into a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for commercially developing over 300 acre near Yelahanka in north Bangalore, which is in proximity to the upcoming international airport.
Goldman Sachs, which has committed investments worth over $ 2 billion in India, has identified real estate and infrastructure as the key sectors for investment. Notwithstanding, a certain cooling off in recent quarters, the returns from the Indian real estate sector is still seen as one of the best in the Asia Pacific region, which may have prompted US financial giants like JP Morgan to take a big plunge into the domestic realty market.
Sources said the deal was in final stages of due diligence, and could go through shortly. When contacted, Century Group said:
“No funding plan has been finalized yet. We will let you know once there is a development.” Goldman Sachs is also investing in the Peninsula Realty Fund (PRF) promoted by Ashok Piramal group. Dayanand Pai-led Century Group is arguably the biggest aggregator of land in and around Bangalore over the last 25 years, and has offloaded sizable holdings to some of the biggest developers that entered the city’s real estate play, which has boomed in the last one decade.
The group has been associated with some of Bangalore’s landmarks like Diamond District, Manipal Centre and Taj Residency.
Last year, Mr Pai’s massive land banks saw his name being linked to India’s first Formula-1 circuit for which Bangalore was in contention, before the decision went in favour of Delhi.
Recently, Century Group has ventured into construction business through Century Building Industries, and is involved in developing over 5 million sq ft of real estate spread across hotels, residential apartments, commercial complex and malls. Few month back, Goldman Sachs CEO Brooks Entwistle had said that the company plans to invest $1 billion in India over the next two years.
Source: Economic Times