RREEF Alternative Investments, the $90 billion property arm of Deutsche Bank, has launched a new operation in India. The new venture, named RREEF India Advisors Private Limited, will be run locally by country head Kishore Gotety. There will be a team of six to provide real estate and infrastructure advice to RREEF's funds. At the same time, RREEF has announced that it will buy a 60% stake in a mixed-use property development in Hyderabad, where it will partner with NCC Urban. The project is located close to the international airport. It will take five years and will consist of commercial, residential and hotel space. This will complement its first Indian property venture, a $70 million stake in developer Golden Gate Properties.   more »

The private equity arm of Indian private sector Axis Bank said on Tuesday its infrastructure fund had raised 6 billion rupees ($148 million). Axis Private Equity said it had already committed more than half of the fund, and it would focus on companies that build transport, irrigation, energy networks and hotel developers. "The fund was raised within five to six months from its launch in turbulent market conditions," the company said in a statement, adding it aimed to eventually raise up to $600 million. The federal government has estimated India will need about $500 billion between 2007 and 2012 to modernise and expand the country's creaky power and transport networks.   more »

Australia investment bank manager Babcock & Brown hopes to invest in $2 billion of Indian property and infrastructure assets within three years and has poached nine investment bankers from ABN AMRO for the task. Jaginder Singh Pasricha, executive director for business development in India, told Reuters the infrastructure specialists he pinched from the Dutch bank had started their fund on Monday. Pasricha has spent the last year formulating a strategy for spending up to 40 per cent of a $1 billion Asia infrastructure fund. This week he put together a new team in one fell swoop.   more »

Red Fort Capital, an international private equity fund, is planning to invest Rs 3,500 crore in the country's real estate sector during the next one year. It has also launched a domestic fund few weeks back through which it plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore. The proceeds would be deployed into non-foreign direct investment projects. The first closing of the 6-year domestic fund would be in May, 2008. From the Rs 3,500 crore raised through the international fund, the company has committed Rs 1,100 crore for several projects. It has allocated 50% amount towards residential projects and 10-15% each for logistics, commercial office space and smaller ITITES parks.   more »

International Finance Corporation (IFC) and German development bank KfW have announced the Microfinance Initiative for Asia (MIFA) to commit up to $1 billion through debt and equity investments, structured finance and advisory services to support microfinance institutions (MFIs). The initiative is slated to start in India this year. It will involve leveraging existing investment vehicles to provide equity and long-term local currency debt through partial guarantees, and developing new investment vehicles in markets with less access to capital markets.   more »

Kotak Realty Fund is looking to invest close to Rs 200 crore in setting up a joint venture (JV) company with the DRS Group, a third-party logistics (3PL) company based out of New Delhi. The new entity, DRS Warehousing (South), will build and operate almost six warehouses in the southern region of India. “This is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that we have formed for warehouse construction and management,” said a senior DRS Group official requesting anonymity. The DRS Group is expected to have a 25% stake in the JV, while Kotak Realty Fund will hold the majority. According to sources close to the development, each warehouse will more than 2,00,000 sq feet and four warehouses will be completed before December, 2008.   more »

Axis Private Equity, the PE arm of Axis Bank, has raised a Rs 600-crore infrastructure fund. IDFC Private Equity, another major, had on Tuesday announced its intention to raise a $700-million fund for the sector. According to sources familiar with the matter, Axis Private Equity is already in the process of finalising four deals related to the infrastructure sector. “Of its targeted corpus of Rs 2,000 crore, Axis PE has closed its first fund — Axis Infrastructure Fund 1 — by raising Rs 600 crore,” said a person involved in the development. The PE has already identified four investment targets, he added. When contacted, Axis PE chief executive officer and MD Alok Gupta declined to comment. Axis PE raised Rs 600 crore within a period of five to six months from its launch, the tight liquidity conditions notwithstanding. Apart from pension funds, investors in the fund also include sophisticated domestic and international banks and corporates. The Axis Infrastructure Fund has an anchor investment of Rs 200 crore from Axis Bank — the erstwhile UTI Bank — while the rest is being raised from outside.   more »

A Norway-based private equity fund will invest Rs 400 crore (500 million Norwegian kroners) in India's energy sector, which is expanding rapidly to meet the South Asian country's growing need for power and oil. The Indo-Nordic Private Equity AS was launched last week in Norway's capital of Oslo by Indian Ambassador Mahesh Sachdev and that country's richest man Stein Erik Hagen. "Till now, most of the business between India and Norway was in the form of Indian companies buying services from Norwegian companies in the field of shipping and oil and gas," Suneel Regulla, the managing director of the fund, said.   more »

Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest U.S. securities firm, will set up a private equity unit in India from May 1, the company said in an e-mailed statement today. The New York-based company also said it has hired Aluri Srinivasa Rao from ICICI Venture, a unit of ICICI Bank Ltd. and India's largest private equity fund, as a managing director. Rao, 43, will run the group's private equity investments in India, the statement said. ``We are excited to be entering the India market,'' Chin Chou, managing director and chief executive officer of Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, said in the statement. This year presents one of the most attractive times to be investing capital in India, he said. Morgan Stanley's private equity unit will invest in India through its third fund dedicated to Asia, which manages $1.5 billion, the company said. (Bloomberg)   more »

Indian infrastructure specialist IDFC Private Equity is raising a new $700 million fund to buy stakes in firms expected to thrive as the country modernises its rag-tag power and transport networks. IDFC's managing director for investment, Satish Mandhana, told Reuters the fund would close in the next two to three weeks, with around 85 percent of the money coming from abroad. Foreign investors are increasingly drawn to Indian infrastructure, as the government estimates about $500 billion will be needed to build new roads, ports, airports and power plants by 2012 to keep pace with a fast-growing economy. Around 30 percent of that spending is expected to come from the private sector, with the rest split between the central and state governments.   more »