Sunil Dahiya: I will share a very personal experience. There was an IRS officer who was monitoring these IPOs at some level and said to me ‘Sunil you watch these IPOs, these are going to be windfall IPOs and then you will see watershed.
Ravi Sinha: One issue which Sunil raised on funding mechanism that it was a strategic mistake by certain developers to raise money through IPOs. I would like to rake this issue again and seek the panel’s view.
Today we are looking at a situation where real estate is isolated by the Government as an industry it does not trust. It could be because it is too segregated, too micro for a Government to take note about 5000 developers which are organized under CREDAI.
Pranay Vakil: The problem is when having sanctioned the loan, there is no fear of revoking it. You can change your mind because these funds are kind of committed. When engage Shapoorji Pallonji or L&T to execute a project, you enter into a contract and you say that this is how we are going to make payments. Suddenly, if you are to switch off the tap, it is going to cause a lot of embarrassment to the developer.
Atul Modak: Why did bankers’ lobby not block the mutual funds then?
Pranay Vakil: Because the mutual funds lobby is larger than the bankers’ lobby. They could not do anything about it. The companies into mutual funds are so large, they might just foray into banking.
Sunil Dahiya: I have a copy of the circular which PNB got from the RBI and probably the managers are interpreting that in their own way. Now the circular that has been shared by the HO with the managers says that they will not take any exposure in housing loans, not even non-fund based.
Pranay Vakil: Kruti can you give some examples of innovative funding for the benefit of the panel? It is just to prove a point about how innovative that funding has been.
Kruti Jain: I believe any funding available in real estate is gap funding. It is not about only the gap which is there in funding for real estate because what happens for other industries is that they have this reserve capital which is not their land or raw material, but is the actual capital they put in to manufacture xyz product and then they replenish the funds with whatever returns are accrued.
Sunil Dahiya: Pranay, the most important thing is the background of the investor from the developer’s perspective. My understanding may be a little limited because I come form the Delhi NCR market and as you know, it is a very localized subject. But being in the governing council of NAREDCO at the national level, where Knight Frank is knowledge partner, one of the presentations that we had in 2008 with the idea that where the industry has lost its bearing and funding was the main agenda.
Pranay Vakil: Let’s start by introducing ourselves. I am Pranay Vakil, Chairman of Knight Frank India. We are a brokerage and consultancy group, positioned as second in the business.