Kotak Investment Advisors Limited (KIAL), the alternative investment arm of Kotak Mahindra Group, has announced closure of its 12th Real Estate (RE) Fund, for investments in office assets in India.
“KIAL has formed a $590 million (around Rs 4,600 crore) platform with a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) for this fund, which will be domiciled in Gujarat’s GIFT City,” Kotak group said in a statement.
With this new fund, KIAL has raised, managed or advised more than $2.8 billion (Rs 21,825 crore) under its series of real estate funds.
“This is our 12th real estate fund and extends our successful relationship with ADIA. With the closure of this fund, we have raised around $1 billion (around Rs 7,795 crore) in real estate in the last one year,” said Vikas Chimakurthy, chief executive officer, Kotak Realty Fund.
He added, “strong demand for offshoring, return to office increasing, growth of the services industry and Indian economy has seen substantial scope for creating a portfolio of quality office assets. With multiple avenues for exit of such portfolios and increasing liquidity of completed assets, we intend to curate this portfolio to cater to increasing appetite for stabilized assets."
ADIA, sovereign wealth fund of the gulf emirate, is also a limited partner (LP) investor in Kotak Special Situations Fund, which is in process of raising its second new fund.
VCCircle has reported that the Kotak investment arm, which is in process of raising multiple funds, is also set to foray into venture capital, venture debt and buyouts space.
Set up in early 2005, KIAL has so far raised/managed/advised in aggregate over $5.7 billion across different asset classes including real estate funds, private equity funds, infrastructure funds, special situations fund, listed strategies and investment advisory, all led by independent investment teams.
“Kotak Alternate Assets is targeting to become the "go-to" alternative asset manager for differentiated strategies for global investors. This pool of equity capital expands our footprint in real estate investments with a focused strategy. The GIFT regime and proactive regulator has made the process of pooling global capital in GIFT City flexible and smooth. This is the first of many pools of capital that we intend to raise this year to address various alternative investment opportunities in India,” said Srini Sriniwasan, managing director at KIAL.
Mohamed AlQubaisi, executive director of the real estate department at ADIA said, “this new platform will focus on opportunities associated with long term demand for Indian office space, which is being driven by global organizations seeking to capitalize on the country’s skilled workforce.”
