Thursday, May 14, 2015

@GoldmanSachs and @Nitesh_Estates to invest $250 million in real estate

Investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and Bengaluru-based developer Nitesh Estates today announced an agreement to jointly invest in income-producing, commercial real estate assets in India for up to $250 million. The first investment by the joint venture is the purchase of Koregaon Park Plaza in Pune, a 1 million sq ft operational shopping mall  from Israeli firm Elbit Imaging, which is owned by Israeli billionaire Mordechai Zisser. Goldman has invested $37 million in it.


"We believe the cyclical recovery in India has begun. The new government is focused on boosting potential growth and removing bottlenecks, which will kick start the investment and consumption cycles leading to enhanced GDP growth," said Sonjoy Chatterjee, chairman of Goldman Sachs India.

"Like Koregaon Park Plaza, future target real estate investments will be in leased, income-producing A-grade office buildings and luxury commercial and hospitality facilities throughout India's first tier cities," said Nitesh Shetty, chairman and managing director of Nitesh Estates.


The investment comes days after India eased tax and other regulations to enable companies to set up and list real estate investment trusts (REITs), giving debt-laden developers a fresh avenue to raise funds and kickstart development.