HIRANANDANI UPSCALE TIES UP PE FUNDING FOR THREE PROJECTS

HIRANANDANI UPSCALE TIES UP PE FUNDING FOR THREE PROJECTS
Vivek Seal, New Delhi
DNA

Hiranandani Upscale, a fully owned company of Mumbai-based developer Hiranandani Group, said it has achieved financial closure for three of its new projects from private equity players for acquisition of land plots. However, the company did not provide financial details on the developments.

"Currently, we have two townships projects off the ground ... in the next year we are looking at adding three more and one smaller development project. Our focus is tier-1, so we have projects in Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore," Neha Hiranandani, director at privately held Hiranandani Upscale, said.

She added that with new and existing projects, they are looking at total developable space of 50 million square feet of long gestation township projects. "For the new projects, we are in various stages of negotiations and due-diligence. The land has been already acquired for the project, but I cannot provide any investment figures. The funding would be through various methods, primarily through a private equity placement for which we have achieved a financial closure for three of the new projects, but I can not disclose more," Hiranandani added.

The company has sold only minority stake to investors, mostly in the acquisition of the land plots, and not for the longer-term development, so as to maintain a controlling stake in the projects.

Sources familiar with the development said the developer has acquired 135 acres in three cities for about Rs 800 crore. The land comprises of 35 acres in Chennai, 80 acres in Bangalore and 20 acres in Hyderabad.