ASK Property Investment Advisors (ASK PIA), the real estate private equity arm of the ASK group, on Monday announced the first close of its new fund which is smaller than what it mopped up in its previous outing.
Christened as Real Estate Fund (RESOF IV), the fund has marked the first close of its sixth fund at Rs 610 crore. ASK PIA intends to raise Rs 2,000 crore for this vehicle.
“We have announced initial closure of more than $80 million, which will be invested in the established residential markets of Mumbai, Pune, Noida, Gurugram, Bengaluru and Chennai. Domestic investors account for 50% of the real estate fund raised, while overseas investors account for the remaining 50%,” said Amit Bhagat, CEO and MD at ASK PIA.
The asset manager had committed to raise Rs 2,500 crore for its fifth fund.
ASK PIA has raised around Rs 5,000 crore since 2009 and investors include family offices, ultra high net worth individuals (UHNI), high net worth individual (HNI) and institutions.
Over the last few years, private equity investments in income yielding commercial, Industrial, residential and data centres have increased significantly.
The increase is primarily led by foreign capital inflows in India.
The investor claimed that its portfolio projects have shown robust performance and witnessed y-o-y growth of more than 70% in sales value in FY2021-22.
“The swift rebound, as indicated by a significant increase in sales velocity following the Covid period, has been very encouraging. We believe the residential market is already on a growth trajectory in 2022 and is likely to follow the same trend in the coming years,” said Sunil Rohokale, MD and CEO at ASK Group.
The real estate market has seen a flurry of activity in recent weeks following the interruption created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In April, real estate developer Rustomjee Group said it is setting up a development fund platform, Mt K Kapital, to fund residential and mixed-use development projects in Mumbai metropolitan region.
In the same month, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), among the most active alternative investors in India’s real estate sector, and Tata Realty and Infrastructure Ltd have announced a new 50:50 joint venture with an equity value of Rs 5,300 crore to develop commercial office space.
Around same time, global private equity investor Actis marked the final close of its Actis Asia Real Estate 2 (AARE2) fund at $700 million, which will invest in real estate that enables a new economy across Asia including India.
In March, CPPIB partnered with Bengaluru-based realty firm RMZ Corp committing to invest around Rs 2,650 crore (around $355 million) to develop and acquire commercial projects across India.
