Vipul to invest Rs 13,000 crore to expand outside the North

Gurgaon-based real estate firm Vipul Infrastructure Developers will invest about Rs 13,000 crore in the next five years to develop realty projects.

The company is expanding its footprint beyond North India and is gearing up for major forays in Bhubaneshwar and Hyderabad.

Currently, the firm has over 25 projects for development in different cities with a saleable area of 40 million sq ft, he said. "In the next five years, we will invest about Rs 13,000 crore both in current and future projects," Vipul Managing Director Punit Beriwala said.

"We will invest around Rs 10,000 crore to develop existing land banks in the next 3-4 years. Construction work on 10 million sq ft has already started," said Beriwala.

On funding of the expansions, he said it would be a mix of debt, advance sales from customers and internal accruals. Besides, the company could consider partnering foreign investors at project level.

Asked if Vipul would look for further foreign investment in the firm, as was done by US-based Wachovia Corporation, Beriwala ruled out any FDI at entity level.

Wachovia Corporation, one of the largest diversified financial institutions in the US, had earlier this year picked up 14.95 per cent stake in Vipul for Rs 234 crore. Wachovia had invested through its company WDC Ventures.

Vipul's existing projects are located in Amritsar, Bhubaneswar, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Mohali and Nagpur.

The company has bagged an IT/ITeS SEZ project, spread over 54 acre with a saleable area of 5 million sq ft, from the Maharashtra government.

The construction for the Rs 1,000 crore SEZ project is expected to commence in December-January. Of its total land bank, Vipul has 25-30 per cent of area each in Gurgaon and Hyderabad.

Beriwala said the firm was planning a major expansion in Bhubaneshwar, where it plans to develop two residential projects aggregating to a saleable area of 3 million sq ft. Besides the existing projects, he said the company was scouting for land at Raipur and Siliguri where it saw enormous potential.