DLF trading at Rs725 in grey market ?

DLF India Ltd which wanted to re-list itself on the Indian stock exchanges during May had to postpone to August because of the market crash. Subsequently, we exposed the company on how they had looted and cheated small investors. This issue was settled in November with the company deciding to allot shares to small investors who were cheated as mentioned above.

Now it is back in the news again after two high profile Real Estate IPOs in India - Parsvnath Developers Limited and Sobha Developers Limited. This time around their are vested interests trying to figure out what is the best price the company can re-list itself by brining rumors such as it's grey market price is Rs725 and insiders talk about approaching existing small equity shareholders of the company to surrender their shares.

Insiders also tell that a new RHP will be filed and this time the size of the issue is likely to go up from Rs 10,000 crores to Rs13,500 crores. DLF is in partnership with Hilton group to establish a branded chain of Hotels in India. DLF is likely to make a private placement to Private Equity Investors, VCs and FIs before its IPO in Jan-07. When will Indians realize that current Realty prices today are far from reality ?

Tags: DLF IPO, Realty India, DLF, Hilton, SEZ India

Emaar - MGF wants to be Indias Number One Realty Co

Emaar the Dubai based Realty developer in association with MGF of India wants to eb the Numebr One realty player in India.

Emaar MGF have the following SEZ approvals in India and their is no shortage of finaces for this group.

Mohammad Alabbar, Chairman of Emaar was in India to sign a deal with Accor Hotels to build 100 Formule1 Budget Hotels across India by 2010.

Speaking to bloggers after signing the deal, Mr Alabbar said,
"We see a great investment cliamte in India, as far as the real estate sector is concerned. We will continue to invest heavily in India and will be looking at expanding our base and diversifying into new areas with the aim of becoming India's leading real estate company"
[Sure their is great climate with so many Babus and Netas cashing in on their black money investments in Real Estate].

Mr. Alabbar's opinion on steep real estate prices - Given the power of local consumtion in India, there is absolutely no need to panic. Alright, continue to invest in real estate and KILL the manufacturing and services industry of India.

Tags: Emaar MGF India, Accor Hotels India

Goldman Sachs to invest $45 Million in Peninsula Realty

Goldman Sachs the American financial giant which has set aside the highest corpus amongst institutional investors of $1 Billion for Indian Real Estate investments is in talks with Ashok Pirmal promoted Peninsula Realty Fund.

Peninsula Realty Fund - PRF is floating a Rs 1,500 crores [$300 M] special purpose vehicle to invest in FDI compliant real estate and infrastructure projects. PRF is also likely to have another scheme where the company is likely to accept investment from Indian investors.

Goldman Sachs is extremely bullish on the Indian real estate sector and may soon start signing the deals. Obviously, Goldman wants the easiest route to make money. Why aren't they investing in startup manufacturing units ?

Tags: India Real Estate, Goldman Sachs, Peninsula Real Estate, Realty+India

Tax sops to SEZs will cost $20 Billion to exchequer

Various Tax sops to the SEZs (Land Banks) in India will cost the central exchequer a whopping $22 Billion. The finance ministry has said that over a four year period they will stand to lose in various taxes amount to the tune of Rs100,000 crores or $20 Billion.

Loss by means of Direct Taxes - Rs53,740 crores. [$11.5 Billion]
Loss by means of Indirect Taxes - Rs48,881 crores. [$9.5 Billion]

Ultimately the ordinary and middle class citizens of India will have to make up for the loss of these taxes that are directly pocketed by Land Sharks developing these SEZs.

Via [FE]

Tags: SEZ India, Real Estate India, Realty India,Tax India

Real Estate Mutual Funds in India

In July-06, I had written that Real Estate Mutual Funds will hit the Indian market. Today, Mr. Kurien, Chairman of Association of Mutual Funds in India said that AMFI had worked with SEBI and the guidelines are expected to be out soon.

Latest developments can be summarized as follows.

• SEBI wants these schemes to be listed on various stock exchanges.
• Mutual Fund managers don't want to list on exchanges for reasons stated below
  
• Mutual Fund managers are worried about non-transparency in real estate and land bank deals. Non-existence of REITs [Real Estate Investment Trusts] will cause liquidity problems should the investors opt for mass redemption.
• Fund managers want Real Estate Mutual Funds initially to be closed ended for 3 years so that the Indian real estate market currently dominated by Politicians, Mafia and Black Money businessmen mature as an Industry.
• Fund managers initially want to introduce these funds only for High Networth Individual

Hopefully SEBI will resolve the issue with AMFI.

Tags: Real Estate India, Mutual Funds India, Realty India

Sobha Developers IPO Open.

After the success of Parsvnath Developers Ltd IPO, Bangalore based, Sobha Developers IPO is now open for subscription. The IPO seems to be priced at very high P/E of 37.5 but due to sound track record of managment most of them may apply. Dalal Street Business has more details on Sobha Developers IPO.

Also read another article on how people and foreign investors are evaluating the Indian Real Estate Stocks on Dalal Street. The situation is getting crazy and ENAM, a brokerage house has told that the property market will cool down in 2008.

Tags: Sobha IPO, Real Estate, India Real Estate, Real Estate Stocks

K Raheja raises money in London. Hirandani Plans 750 Million float

The Mumbai based K Raheja group, today raised Rs 1,500 crores on the London Stock Exchange's AIM - Alternate Investment Market for their group company Ishaan Realty.

Ishaan is a real estate investment company promoted by K Raheja group and plans to invest in Indian real estate development projects located in the southern and western parts of the country - such as Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune. They are also planning to build an IT SEZ.

Following the success of Ishaan Real Estate, Hiranandani Developer insiders talked about their plans to go for a listing on London Stock exchange with a mega float of $750 Million. Hiranandani are the developers of Mumbai's landmark for corporate executives, Hiranandani Gardens.

The main reason for these promoters to go for international listing is to get visiblity and also higher valuations for their company.

Tags: Raheja Real Estate, Ishaan IPO, Hiranandani IPO, Hiranandani Gardens

Institutional Money Chasing the Indian Real Estate Sector

We know that every major financial institution wants a piece of Indian Real Estate pie. Here is the record of the Fund and Size in USD Million they have raised to invest in India.

Goldman Sachs proprietary India Fund (partly for real estate) 1000
ICICI India Advantage Fund 800
HDFC India Real Estate Fund 720
Horizon International Fund (Pantaloon Group) 350
Citigroup Property Investors 350
India aReit Fund (Piramal Group) 350
AIG Group 300
Deutsche 300
Maia (Malini Alles) 250
3i Group 160
Xander RE Fund LLC 150
Kotak Mahindra 100
Kshitij Venture Capital Fund (Pantaloon Group) 100
Dream Fund (Dewan Housing Finance Ltd.) 100

Funds deployed So Far:
Name of the Fund followed by Investee company, Amount in USD Million and Stake

Citigroup Property Investors in Gera Developers 125 JV 50:50
HDFC India Real Estate Fund in Ansal IT City & Parks 100 Stake-33%
Siachen Capital LLC in Nitesh Estates 100 PE
Capitaland in Mumbai based Runwal Group 100 JV 49:51
Laing O’Rourke in DLF 100 50:50 JV
Morgan Stanley in Mantri Developers 68 PE
Morgan Stanley in Alpha G Corp 65 PE
3i Group in Suntech group 41 PE
India aReit Fund (Piramal Group) in Suntech group 13.6 PE

Tags: India Real Estate, Citi, Morgan Stanley, Real Estate Funds

SEZ Policy is absolutely Non-Sense and a MESS

What are SEZs for ? If you thought they were for promoting export orienetd industrial and manufacturing, you are so wrong. SEZ India act is the largest Land Bank scam ever on this universe.

Realitycheck is reporting that someone wants to setup a University on SEZ. God Damm these policy makers! The story doesn't end there, Anil Agarwal controlled Vedanta Resources wants 10,000 acres of land to setup a university in a SEZ.

Tags: SEZ India, Scam India, India Real Estate Scam, University

RBI Warns again on rising Indian Real Estate Prices

RBI governor, Dr Y V Reddy has ssaid that he is uncomfortable at the rate at which property prices are rising in India. Earlier, he had told lending to real estate would get expensive and had slammed the government's SEZ policy.

Today, the RBI said that it is monitoring exposure to Real Estate, bank by bank, branch by branch. "We don’t take a view as to whether there’s a bubble, but there is slight discomfort that asset prices have been moving too fast".

He has further added,
"On the whole, my assessment is that our warnings would have had some impact and given the exposure of the banks, I would not expect damage to our banking system in a systemic sense, assuming there is a localised bubble that bursts"

Hopefully we will see the trend reverse soon as we want lower real estate prices to provide global services and manufacturing activity which is the main job creator and driver of our economy.

Tags: RBI India, Realty India, Real Estate India, Indian Economy

Sobha Developers Land Bank and Land Reserves

We have obtained the figures of Sobha Developers Ltd Land Bank and Land Reserves in Bangalore, Chennai and other south Indian cities. For IPO details, kindly refer to DalalStreet.

Bangalore / Bengalooru - 1767.90 Acres. (1767 Land Reserve of which 57 acres is Green Belt)
Pune - 995 Acres. (302 Land reserve + 693 Land Arrangement)
Chennai - 3,000 Acres. (392 land Reserve + 2607 Land Arrangement)
Cochin - 256 Acres. (183 Land Reserve + 73 Land Arrangement)
Coimbatore - 26.14 Acres (Land Reserve)
+Mysore and Thrisur.

Sobha Developers: Total Land Reserve is 2,747 acres. Total Land Arrangement 3,373 acres.
Total amount paid for these lands is Rs 662 crores and total amount to be paid is Rs 1,345 crores.

Unlike, Parsvnath Developers SEZ, Sobha Developers has no SEZ.

Tags: IPO India, Sobha Developers, Parsvnath, Real Estate India

Bangalore based DivyaSreee Developers to setup IT SEZ

At a time when MNCs like HP are opting out of the SEZ race in India, Bangalore based Real Estate Developer DivyaSree is understood to have applied for an IT/ITeS SEZ license.

They propose to setup a 73 acre campus with over seven million sft of office space. It is proposed to be built in Whitefield, Bangalore.

Tags: Sez India, Bangalore RealEstate, Whitefield, Divyasree

Xander Real Estate to pick stake in RIL Bandra Kurla Project

Sidharth Yog promoted, Xander Real Estate fund is close to pick-up 25% stake in Reliance Industries Ltd promoted Bandra Kurla project. RIL had tied-up with Maker group to jointly develop an alternative to Nariman Point. The plot earlier used to host an open air theatre run by Maker group.

Insiders claim that the value of the deal could be in the range of $125 Million (Rs 560 crores). The project will have 60% residential accomodation and 25% commercial office space. It is also likely to have commercial retail space which is likely to be filled by Reliance Retail.

Tags: Reliance SEZ, Mumbai Real Estate, Bandra, Xander Real Estate

Government to let Indian Realty Developers take ECB Route

Faced with cash crunch, Indian realty developers are lobbying hard with the Government to make External Commercial Borrowing easier for them.

Current ECB and FCCB norms make it tough to borrow without diluting equity said a Bangalore based developer currently financed by wealthy Doctors from the US and the UK. With ECB borrowing he will have access to cheaper loans but however he was quick to point out that this is likely to benefit only the large developers.

Tags: India Real Estate, SEZ India, Loans

Commercial Real Estate prices Sky Rocket in India

I am sure you are aware of the Supreme Court decision to seal all commercial establishments in residential areas. My sources tell me that lease and rental prices in South and East Delhi have shot up by 70% in one month. Fashion designers who were paying Rs 60,000 as monthly rental after relocating to East Delhi mall are paying around Rs 150,000 per month said another source.

Meanwhile, in Bangalore / Bengalooru the IT capital of Asia, legal commerical property prices rose by 10% in a day in Jaynagar said one of my trusted aides. The BMP has started a drive to hunt for such tainted residential-commerical properties. A property owner spoke on condition of annonymoity, that this is a move by the corrupt government to make money in the booming real estate. Lot of speculators have also entered the market making it difficult for true businessmen to conduct business. This should end soon or our economic boom itself will end.

Tags: SEZ India, India Real Estate, Reliance SEZ, Commercial Real Estate

Breaking News: No More IT SEZs in India

Commerce Secretary, Mr, G K Pillai, said in a speech that, they will not approve more IT SEZs due to the controversy surrounding land acquistion. However, if a company comes with an application after land acquistion, then a formal approval maybe given. We were the first one to report that HP had given up their IT SEZ plans in Bengalooru, India.

In another announcement, SEZs will get 100% Income Tax rebate during the first 5 years of operation and 50% during the next 5 years.

Trump Real Estate to be in India

New York real estate tycoon, Donald Trump with a passion for downtown towers is all set to invade India. According to my insiders, recently his kids working for him were in India and the Emerging Economy watch who seems to be an ardent follower of Donald Trump has more views.

Parsvnath Developers Ltd SEZs in India

Here is an exclusive list of Parsvnath Developers Ltd SEZs which have received in-principal approval from state and central governments.

Parsvnath Developers Limited Tattanaram Villages, Ranga Reddy, Hyderabad, AP Biotechnology 10.11 Hectares

Parsvnath Developers Limited Kundli, Sonepat, Haryana Food Processing Industries 100 Hectares

Parsvnath Developers Limited Indore, MP IT/ITES 30.76 Hectares

Parsvnath Developers Limited Pune, Maharashtra Automotive & Auto Component Industry 100 Hectares

Parsvnath Developers Ltd Jaipur-Ajmer Raod, Jaipur, Rajasthan Gems & Jewellery 45.6 Hectares

Parsvnath Developers Limited Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu Multi-Product 1000 Hectares

Parsvnath Developers Limited Sahastra Dhara Road, Dehradun, Uttaranchal IT/ITES 14 Hectares

Parsvnath Developers Limited Agra, UP Leather & Leather Products 100 Hectares

Parsvnath Developers Limited Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh Handicraft 100 Hectares

Total Area to be developed by Parsvnath in SEZs is 1,500 hectares.

Burj - The Tallest Tower in the World

One of my friend from Dubai sends this picture. It is the picture of Burj, when completed will eb the tallest tower in the world. It will be much taller than Taipei 101. Burj is being built by the Emaar group.

Emaar groups interests in Indian Land bank are as follows.

• Emaar MGF Land Private Ltd. Shikohpur, Distt. Gurgaon, Haryana IT/ITES 100
• Emaar MGF Land Private Ltd. Gurgaon, Haryana IT/ITES 28
• Emaar MGF Land Private Ltd. Villages Kherki Daulla and Sihi, District Gurgaon, Haryana IT/ITES 20
• Emaar MGF Land Private Ltd. Village Boda Kalan, Distt Gurgaon Multi-Product 4000
• Emaar MGF Land Private Ltd. Jahajpur, Distt Gurgaon, haryana Multi-Product 2000
• Emaar MGF Land Private Ltd. Lakhnaula, Distt Gurgaon, Haryana IT/ITES 240
• Emaar MGF Land Private Ltd. Machigarh, Bhupani, Distt Faridabad, Haryana Multi-Product 1000
• Emaar MGF Land Private Ltd. Banskusla, Gurgaon, Haryana Auto Ancillary 100
• Emaar MGF Land Private Ltd. Bans Hariya, Gurgaon, Haryana IT/ITES 120
• Emaar MGF Land Private Ltd. Naweda Fatehpur, Gurgaon, Haryana Gems & Jewellery 40
  

Will they build any taller than Burj in India ?

Tags: Burj, Real Estate, Dubai, Indian Malls

From Tech Startups to Nanocity

Sabeer Bhatia, the pampered Hotmail founder is now venturing into all sorts of deals where Technology doesn't matter.

Last month we saw him become an Online Travel and Holiday Booking agent by rekindling his Arzoo.com (A failed venture after Dot Com bust).

Now he has all set his sight to build a Nano City. What ? Yes he has turned into a Real Estate developer. Is he also a Land Shark ? Maybe ? I guess its mainly because when you stay in India, you f*ck your creativity and all day you think is how to get rich. Good infrastructure is necessary, but a better entrepreneurs and a technocrat is much more needed.

Tags: India Real Estate, SEZ India, Sabeer Bhatia, NanoCity

Film makers come to rescue of Farmers in India

A documentary film has been made on the SEZ Land sharks and corrupt state governments that are adamant to push the SEZ reforms at the cost of farmers livelihood. The documentary made by a Pune-based producer shows how the farmers already weighed down by debts are being separated from their lands for setting up of special economic zones (SEZ).

The film was exhibited for a select audience in Pune . The film covers the issues of farmers suicides, their forced eviction from their lands and carries the views of Medha Patkar , Vandana Shiva, retired high court Judge P.B.Sawant and economist Sulakba Brahme

Justice Sawant says in the documentary that every attempt would be made to stop SEZs, including judicial remedies. According to him, agricultural land acquisition for SEZs has no valid provision in the SEZ Act. Sawant rubbishes special concessions for SEZs as unconstitutional. The documentary shows advocate Govind Pansare passionately arguing against the SEZ Act. He ridicules the description of SEZs in the Act as foreign islands within the country. He fears that SEZs could become powerful tools in the hands of developers to turn thousands of acres of land acquired for the purpose into real estate. He says developers are utilising only 35 percent of the land for setting up of export-oriented units and use the remaining for developing real estate, five-star hotels, casinos and bars.

The documentary producer promises more on SEZs in future as the momentum against them gathers.

He said neither district collectors nor the ministers concerned were willing to come forward to offer their views on the issue.

Tags: Real Estate India, SEZ India, Reliance SEZ