Ansal Hi-Tech Townships, a special purpose vehicle (SPV), is building a 2,500- acre modern township with a developable area of 75 million sq ft in Greater Noida in the National Capital Region. The Ansal group has entered into a shareholder and debenture subscription agreement with HDFC AMC, Ansal said in a BSE filing.
According to sources from Ansal, the company is expecting a turnover of Rs 26,000 crore from the project and expected to invest over Rs 12,000 crore in the project. The project is in the land acquisition stage and expected to be completed in the next 6-7 years.
The company may also rope in additional investors given the sheer scale and size of the project, sources said, adding: "We are considering other investment proposals also. This is our first transaction.''
Besides the 2,500-acre township, Ansals are also building a 1,765-acre township in Lucknow. One of the HDFC funds has also invested in the IT SEZ of Ansals in Greater Noida. Further, investment major IL&FS has invested $40 million in one of the company's SPVs in the past.
HDFC Venture, the venture capital arm of HDFC, has also picked up 49 per cent stake in two subsidiaries of Godrej Properties. HDFC Property Fund's international realty fund has picked up nearly 50 per cent stake in Mumbai-based developer ACME Group's housing project in Thane, in the central suburbs of Mumbai.
An international fund backed by HDFC has picked up 45 per cent stake in Mumbai-based Lodha group's realty project in Hyderabad for Rs 250 crore.
More From This Section
Property developers are now approaching private equity funds since their traditional source of funds such as bank debt, public issues and external commercial borrowings have dried up after the government and the central bank imposed restrictions on lending to real estate.
Recently, global investment major Lehman Brothers invested Rs 740 crore in property company Unitech's Mumbai commercial project, picking up 50 per cent stake in the initial 1 million sq ft development of the project.