Leading foreign and Indian institutions including Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, ICICI Venture and HDFC Realty are in talks with Nirmal Lifestyle, a real estate developer in Mumbai, to buy a stake in some of its property projects.
Nirmal Lifestyle, which is in the process of raising $5 billion to invest in its township projects across India in the next five years, has plans to raise $500-$800 million from private equity funds.
“We are in the process of developing 20 townships under the brand name “Lifestyle City” across India. We just concluded the land acquisitions in various cities and initiated steps to raise $5 billion to invest in these projects. As a part of it, we will be raising $500 to $800 million from private equity funds,” Nirmal Lifestyle CMD Dharmesh Jain said. He declined to provide names. He said that the firm is also exploring other routes such as a public issue.
Sources said that the Anand Jain-promoted real estate and infrastructure fund, Urban Infrastructure Opportunities Fund (UIOF), has already struck a $50-million deal with Nirmal Lifestyle for a minority stake in one of its Mumbai projects.
“Nirmal Lifestyle just concluded an equity deal with UIOF in one of its Mumbai projects. UIOF will be investing around $100 million for a minority stake,” they added. However, they were reluctant to give more details of the deal. Nirmal Lifestyle will be developing 20 Lifestyle City projects in the next five years.
Each Lifestyle City will be spread across 300-1000 acres. Mr Jain said the company has already identified Mumbai (two locations), Pune, Indore and Panvel as the first five locations to develop the townships. Each Lifestyle Cities will be featuring the best-known brands in the fields of leisure, hospitality, sports and shopping.
“Continuing the tradition, we would like to redefine the Indian urban landscape in line with the expectations of our customers who have been demanding the best at home, office and during his leisure hours,” he added. Each of the mixed-use townships, featuring an IT SEZ in each, will have a total built-up area of approximately 20 million sqft. Of this 75% would be residential and the remaining 25% will be commercial area.
Source: Economic Times