Puravankara to invest Rs 350 cr in Kolkata

Puravankara Projects, a Bangalore-based real estate company, plans to take up 2.58 million square feet residential development in Rajarhat in Kolkata, with an investment of Rs 350 crore.

Girish Puravankara, deputy managing director of the company, told reporters here that the Kolkata project was being executed through a joint venture company, Keppal Purvankara Development Ltd. In this project, Purvankara will have 36.26 per cent economic interest of the 2.26 million sft of saleable area.

Besides, Keppal Purvankara Development Ltd has taken up two projects in Bangalore. The first project in the JP Nagar area in the city is under development whereas the second is yet to start. "We are looking at more projects in India, in cities like Pune and Chennai," Puravankara said.

In Chennai, Puravankara has entered into an MoU with Galaxy Properties for the joint development or purchase of 43.56 million sft of land. Purvankara is also ready to take up first overseas project in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The company has acquired 1.06 million sft of land to develop a high-end 100 residential villa project in Colombo.

According to Ravi Ramu, director, Puravankara Projects, the company holds a land bank of 94.6 million sft of saleable area, of which about 42.77 million sft of saleable is owned by the company and about 6.50 million sft is owned by subsidiaries. The rest 15.71 million sft is owned by the company through entities other than its subsidiaries.

Puravankara is a major player in South India, and has marketing presence in the Gulf countries and Sri Lanka. For the fiscal ended March 2007, the company reported a net profit of Rs 130.40 crore on a total revenue of Rs 416.90 crore.

Talking about company's IPO, Puravankara said the company plans to issue 21.4 million equity shares of Rs 5 each through the book building route. It has fixed the price band at Rs 500-525. DSP Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Global Markets and Kotak Mahindra Capital are the lead managers to the issue.

The issue which opens on July 31 and closes on August 3, would constitute about 10 per cent of the fully diluted post-issue paid up capital of the company.

The company is planning to raise Rs 1,075 crore at the lower end and Rs 1,120 crore at the higher end through the IPO. It aims to use the IPO proceeds to repay debt of Rs 419 crore and expend Rs 360 crore towards land acquisition.