Realty firms are making a beeline to private equity investors for money to repay mounting debt portfolios. With commercial banks turning cautious about lending to the real estate sector, industry players strapped for cash are seeking equity capital to ease the liquidity crunch.
Century Real Estate Holdings, the realty development arm of three-decade old Bangalore-based Century Group, is looking to raise Rs 700 crore through private equity players in three tranches. The company during the past four years have been focusing on development of projects, is understood to be effecting this deal at the holding company level.
Baring Private Equity Partners India (BPEP), along with some of its international investors, is likely to invest about $75 million, or approximately Rs 350 crore, in the Bangalore-based Century Real Estate. Baring’s individual commitment to the deal is around $53 million, while overseas investors who are backing the fund may bring in a little over $20 million in additional investment.
Private equity investments continue to trickle into project or SPV level in the realty space. Sun Apollo India Real Estate Fund LLC, a $630-million India-dedicated real estate private equity fund, has invested Rs 100 crore in a residential project SPV led by Parsvnath Developers Limited (PDL). SUN-Apollo will invest Rs 100 crore for a 49.9% stake in the project SPV, Parsvnath Buildwell Private Limited, which will develop a premium residential project at Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, spread over an area of 31 acres. The project is called Parsvnath Exotica- Ghaziabad.
Q3 2024 attracted USD 1.1 Bn inflows, 45% higher over Q3 2023. Office segment drove over half of the investments in Q3 2024, followed by residential with 33% share. Domestic investments accounted for 44% of the total investments during the quarter. Chennai & Mumbai cumulatively attracted 57% of the inflows in Q3 2024. Sustained confidence in Indian economy continued to drive institutional investments into the real estate sector, reaching USD 4.7 billion during the first three quarters of 2024, almost at par with the corresponding period in 2023. Following significant inflows in the first two quarters, Q3 2024 too registered healthy investment inflow of about USD 1.1 billion, reflecting a 45% YoY growth.
In contrast, with USD 0.3 billion of investments in office assets, the segment witnessed subdued activity in Q2 2024. Although the annual decline was significant at 83%, the QoQ drop was relatively modest at 41%. The surge in industrial & warehousing, and residential investments resulted in a healthy investment volume of USD 3.5 billion for H1 2024 at an overall level, making up for the slow start in first quarter. Foreign investments remained robust, accounting for 81% of the total inflows in Q2 2024, predominantly led by investors from the US and UAE.
Amit Bhagat, CEO & MD, ASK Property Fund said, “This was a recapitalisation opportunity and before the NBFC crisis. By providing the requisite and flexible working capital, we ensured the project’s completion, supported by sales during the life of the project. The investment was self-liquidating with regular cash flow from the sales and collection linked to milestone. We truly believe all projects in the established suburbs which are job clusters have healthy absorption if completed as per committed timeline.”
The Nifty Realty Index that touched a low of 162.13 on 19th May in the post Covid mayhem has now scaled up to 280.00 (First week of December). The BSE and Nifty also surged more than 50% since the March lows, thus making the Indian stock market one of the best performers across the world. India’s only REIT, Embassy Office Park that scaled down at INR 319 is back in the range of 350 with a forecast of crossing 400. The second REIT, Mindspace Business Pak that was over-subscribed 12.96 times in the month of August this year, is also on its growth curve.
According to the World Bank, India ranks at 63rd among 190 countries, and the ranking is anticipated to improve further in the coming years backed by progressive government policies. Meanwhile, the real estate sector has shown remarkable resilience despite the bearish phase of the economy. Below is a lowdown of how the real estate story unfolded in 2019:
Highly-established developers are known to conduct careful research on their locations and are therefore able to pinpoint the most happening growth corridors. They know what product works best, and where it works best. While end-users are assured that they are buying into a well-researched area, this fact also ‘raises the bottom’ for investors who are looking for the right product to back.