Wednesday, January 24, 2007: Unitech, Gurgaon’s
well-known real estate developer, has received support from Goldman
Sachs, the New York-based global investment bank to float a Special
Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for investments in Indian realty.
The Rs.900 crore SPV will have Goldman holding 33% stock, while
Unitech will fund the remaining Rs.600 crore. Though details of
the projects for investment by this SPV have not been announced,
it is expected that the National Capital Region, Mumbai, and land
around Bangalore’s upcoming airport will be focus areas.
Projects near Special Economic Zones (SEZs) could also be considered
for investment.
With the accent on Tier II and Tier III cities in the Indian
real estate market, investment in Greenfield residential
and commercial property is also being speculated.
Unitech is India’s largest real estate publicly listed
company with a market value of over Rs.38, 000 crore. It started
with commercial and residential property in Gurgaon, constructing
landmark structures, to later expand to large-scale projects across
the country. Unitech has determined a Rs 7,000 crore investment
plan to build 15 hotels and seven IT SEZ parks in the next five
years. The company is already developing hotels in Gurgaon, Noida
and Kolkata and a service apartment in Gurgaon. This real estate
giant also has SEZ projects in the pipeline in Chennai, Gurgaon,
Kolkata, Kochi, Noida and Greater Noida.
Goldman Sachs has been exploring investment
options since April 2006 when it disclosed its decision to reserve
Rs.4, 500 crore for Indian real estate, private equity, and private
wealth management over the next couple of years. The bank disengaged
from its Indian partner Kotak Mahindra last year, but had plans
to start independent asset management services in the country.
