Och-Ziff picks up 25% for $51 mn in Nitesh Estates

Bangalore-based Nitesh Estates has announced that New York-based Och-Ziff Capital Management Group has picked up 25 per cent stake in the company for $51 million.

Och-Ziff Capital Management Group is a global hedge fund with assets worth $21 billion, including investments in the UK football club Manchester United and is making its first Indian investment in the Bangalore-based realty firm.

The company last year raised $100 million from New York-based private equity firm Siachen Capital LLC.

Headquartered in Bangalore, Nitish Estates is engaged in the development of high-end residential apartments, office buildings, gated townships and retail spaces. The company recently bagged a Rs 100 crore built-to-suit residential complex for tobacco major ITC.

Nitesh Shetty, managing director, Nitesh Estates said, "We are glad to have a big global name like Och-Ziff as our partner to take our growth plans forward."

Och-Ziff Capital was started in 1994 by ex-Goldman Sachs executive Daniel Och and Ziff Brothers. Daniel Och finds Asia "an area for future opportunities."

The firm has added developing presences in Tokyo and India to its established offices in New York, London and Hong Kong."

Nitesh Estates recently announced that it has partnered New York-based Citigroup Property Investors to develop a luxury hotel for $100 million in Bangalore.

Citigroup Property Investors partnered with Nitish Estates to build, a 250-room luxury hotel project to come up on Residency Road (opposite Cash Pharmacy) in Bangalore.

The number of international private equity funds investing in Indian real estate firms went up drastically this year. The recent one being Morgan Stanley Real Estate's infusion of Rs 675 crore in Mumbai-based Oberoi Constructions.

PE-backed companies have grown faster than their similar sized competitors, who don't opt for PE funding, a Venture Intellegence report had mentioned.