South Asia real estate fund to raise $100M more

By Sarimul Islam Choudhury (VCCircle.com)

Part of the Duet Group, SARE has invested $180 million in Indian projects so far.

South Asia Real Estate (SARE) fund, a $400-million residential real estate fund targeting mid-market segment, plans to raise another $100 million during January-March next year. The company may rope in a new set of investors, apart from its existing ones.

SARE Fund, part of Duet Private Equity Ltd (DPEL) of Duet Group, an alternative asset management firm based in London, has already invested $180 million across six projects in India, and is targeting to close its next deal in December.

“We are looking at options. We should be doing a transaction by December this year,” Sunil Agarwal, country head, SARE fund told VCCircle.

The company has got 47 investors so far in the fund, which is open to foreign institutional investors only. Its major investors include Forum Partners Investment Management, LLC, Kuwait China Investment Company (KCIC), Topland Group and Goldman Sachs.

The company, which also executes projects besides making investments, is looking for projects in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Lucknow. It plans to invest in 15-20 projects and execute 10-12 projects in the next 15-18 months. However, it will invest a maximum of $10-15 million per project going forward.

The company is currently engaged in developing projects in Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Amritsar, Chennai and Indore. All these developments are coming up in area size of between 90 and 150 acres in each of these cities.

Speaking about the demand pick up in the residential space, Agarwal stated that there was not much impact of the slowdown in the mid-market segment, where the fund focuses on.