DSK plans Rs 100 cr investment

Realtor to tap capital market

The Pune-based construction company, D S Kulkarni Developers Ltd (DSKDL), aims to tap the capital market with its second public issue to raise Rs 150 crore in March 2006.

The company plans to rapidly expand its housing construction business in the next financial year with a host of projects in India and abroad. The funds being raised will be used in its expansion in Bangalore, Goa, Hyderabad and Delhi.

The company had gone public in 1993 and listed on the BSE and NSE. Now, it plans to tap the market again to raise funds to meet the expansion plans. The company has many projects in hand including DSK Vishwa, a township spread over 110 acres at Pune and the proposed projects in Bangalore.

It recently incorporated a subsidiary in USA to take up residential projects and proposes to do the same in UAE as well, said company chairman and managing director D S Kulkarni, here on Friday.

Addressing a press conference to announce the company's entry into Bangalore real estate market, he said they have shortlisted three locations at Whitefield, Sarjapur and Mysore Road and proposes to develop 50 lakh square feet. "We want to provide apartments at an affordable rates for the middle and upper middle class people," he said.

The company's first project will be on Sarjapur road near Wipro corporate office. The work will commence next month and bookings will open in April this year, Kulkarni said.

The remaining two projects are being finalised. It aims to construct nearly 8,000 flats of one and two bedrooms. The average price will range between Rs 1,800-2,600 per sq ft. "We want to sell the flats at much lower prices, but the land prices are very high in Bangalore," said Kulkarni.

DSK Developers, which has completed 25 years in the real estate business and developed 1 crore sq ft, now aims to develop 1.25 crore sq ft land in the next one year. It is also negotiating for acquiring a 300 acre land at Devanahalli. The company aims to be among the top five real estate developers in Bangalore by 2010, he added.