Indian funds eye real estate deals

RE Venture Fund Advisors of Mumbai and New Delhi, India is raising two real estate investment funds for India, PE Week has learned.

The $50 million RE Capital India Fund I and RE Capital FDI Fund, which is targeted between $100 million and $250 million, will both invest in commercial and residential real estate properties in India.

RE Venture Fund Advisors was founded by Isham Singh, Ashwin Mittal and Sanjay Khanna. They were traveling in the United States recently, drumming up interest from investors. The partners have the pedigree to open doors. They each come from prominent Indian families involved in Indian real estate developments.

Singh said that the first fund, which is raising money only from domestic investors in India, is approaching an August first close and has $12 million committed to date. He says that the second fund, which will seek foreign investors, is a Cayman Islands-based vehicle that will begin fund-raising in mid-June.

Singh says that U.S. LPs have been responsive about an Indian real estate fund, because they are projecting 20% to 25% returns on capital invested.

However, by the same token, nothing is more controversial in India than the flood of $4 billion in foreign investment capital seeking to enter private and commercial real estate in India, as the Royal Bank of India has come under criticism in recent months for refusing to approve the more than 50 foreign investment funds seeking approval to invest in Indian real-estate.