MUMBAI: The venture fund arm of housing finance major HDFC, targeted exclusively at the real estate sector, is all set to launch the largest international real estate fund, meant for investors outside India.
The fund size would be $750 million and would predominantly invest in the hospitality sector.
HDFC Real Estate Venture Fund, the private equity arm of HDFC, has already filed the relevant documents with the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), market sources said. Permission for launching the fund is awaited.
The fund, second from the company, follows the success of its first one that was meant for domestic investors and got commitments aggregating $500 million.
This fund was closed in August last year. While the money was being raised, a number of foreign investors had evinced interest to invest into country’s realty sector through HDFC.
The first fund has already invested about 50% of its corpus in various projects. Sources said that HDFC Real Estate’s second fund could start investing only after the first one is fully invested. This is to ensure that there is no clash of interest between the two funds, sources said.
Interestingly, this would join the list of several international real estate venture funds in India waiting regulatory approval from RBI.
So far, the banking regulator has obliged none, a number of these registered in countries like Mauritius and Cyprus.
Market players believe the RBI is currently weighing the pros and cons of allowing foreign money through this route. There are apprehensions that allowing foreign realty funds could create a bubble in the sector.
In case the central bank allows all the international real estate venture funds, the estimated money-flow through these funds alone could be $4 billion (Rs 18,000 crore).
The fund size would be $750 million and would predominantly invest in the hospitality sector.
HDFC Real Estate Venture Fund, the private equity arm of HDFC, has already filed the relevant documents with the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), market sources said. Permission for launching the fund is awaited.
The fund, second from the company, follows the success of its first one that was meant for domestic investors and got commitments aggregating $500 million.
This fund was closed in August last year. While the money was being raised, a number of foreign investors had evinced interest to invest into country’s realty sector through HDFC.
The first fund has already invested about 50% of its corpus in various projects. Sources said that HDFC Real Estate’s second fund could start investing only after the first one is fully invested. This is to ensure that there is no clash of interest between the two funds, sources said.
Interestingly, this would join the list of several international real estate venture funds in India waiting regulatory approval from RBI.
So far, the banking regulator has obliged none, a number of these registered in countries like Mauritius and Cyprus.
Market players believe the RBI is currently weighing the pros and cons of allowing foreign money through this route. There are apprehensions that allowing foreign realty funds could create a bubble in the sector.
In case the central bank allows all the international real estate venture funds, the estimated money-flow through these funds alone could be $4 billion (Rs 18,000 crore).
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