Indian real estate developer Lodha Group said on Thursday it has sold 45 percent stake in a residential-cum-commercial project at Hyderabad, to HDFC Sponsored Funds for $54 million.
The Mumbai-focused company plans to develop a 2.5-million sq ft luxury township in Hyderabad, its first project in the south Indian city. Last year, it had acquired 12.9 acres of land there, for 2.56 billion rupees.
The project is to be completed in 42 months.
HDFC Sponsored Funds comprise offshore funds sponsored and advised by HDFC Ventures, the company said. The deal would be through the foreign direct investment route.
“We continue to look at private equity for financial and strategic reasons,” Director Abhinandan Lodha told reporters at a conference. “We will continue to sell project-level stake to funds.”
The unlisted Lodha Group is currently developing 27 projects in and around Mumbai, most of them in the premium segment. It gets nearly 70 percent of its 10-billion-rupee annual revenues from the residential segment, and 25 percent from commercial.
In September 2007, it had sold stake in three projects to a unit of Deutsche Bank for $410 million, and earlier stake in a Mumbai residential project to a unit of JP Morgan for 2.74 billion rupees.
“We have estimated capital requirement of $2 billion in the next 24 months, for our growth. This could be through private equity route or public markets,” Lodha said. The company was evaluating options for an initial public offer, he added.
Source: Reuters