Amplus Realty Fund-I, the first SEBI-registered domestic real estate fund mainly focused on Gujarat, on Monday announced its first tranche of investment in a realty project in Bangalore, and said it expected 25 per cent returns on this investment of Rs 30 crore in three years.
The fund, set up, among others, by Arvind Ltd’s Chairman and Managing Director Sanjay Lalbhai and CFO Jayesh Shah, in their personal capacities, is also looking for investments in city-centric prime high-end or mid-market residential or residential-led developments, plotting schemes in high growth areas of Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara and a few destinations such as Mumbai, Bangalore and the National Capital Region (NCR), said Anuranjan Mohnot, Chief Executive Officer, here.
The venture fund would invest 50 per cent of its funds in Gujarat, but not in the real estate activities of Arvind Ltd’s subsidiary. “We plan to invest Rs 15-25 crore in individual realty projects in the future.”
With a minimum ticket size of Rs 1 crore, the fund, set up in May 2012, has, so far, raised Rs 100 crore from about 50 HNI investors from Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Surat, about half of which would be invested in 2013. It has set a target corpus of Rs 200 crore (with a green-shoe option of Rs 100 crore) by May 2013, and is open for subscription for second closing.
Mohnot said the fund is close to finalising a number of real estate funding deals in Gujarat and Mumbai.
The fund recently entered into a joint venture with the Bangalore-based Assetz Homes Pvt Ltd, to invest in their Rajaji Nagar project. The joint venture will invest more than Rs 110 crore through equity investment, debt and customer advances to develop mid and high-end residential project, which is expected to get over in the next three years.
Amplus Realty Fund is also looking for opportunities to invest in brownfield commercial or retail projects and redevelopment projects.