Real estate firm Puravankara Projects is in talks to sell stakes in some projects, to fund expansion in a booming market where it sees annual growth rates of 30-40 percent, a top official said on Monday. Earlier in the day the Economic Times reported that the Bangalore-based firm plans to raise up to 20 billion rupees through stake sales in five real estate projects. “We have been cognizant that Puravankara maintains a strong balance sheet. This enables us to embark on our strong growth plans,” Ravi Ramu, director and chief financial officer, told Reuters in an interview. “Until the deal is closed we cannot specifically comment. But private equity is definitely a source we are looking at actively,” he said, adding that stake sale will be only at project-level and there will be no dilution of the parent company's equity. Recent projects lined up by the company involve an investment of 9 billion rupees each in a Kochi residential project and a residential-cum-commercial project in Hyderabad, 5 billion rupees in a Chennai project and 3 billion rupees in Coimbatore. […]