Red Fort Capital, a private equity fund focused on real estate development, is in advance stages of negotiations with six developers for an equal number of projects worth Rs 4,000 crore in the metros across India. The PE fund today joined hands with Godrej Properties to develop an IT park in Kolkata, where Red Fort Capital has picked up 49 per cent stake. The project, Godrej Genesis, is expected to generate sales of over Rs 750 crore. "We are in the process of closing a number of transactions in the NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore. We are currently talking to six different developers in these cities," Red Fort Capital Director Kuldip Chawlla told PTI. Without divulging names of the possible builders, he said three of them are 'big national developers', while the rest are local players.   more »

Ajay Relan, for long the managing director and India head of Citi Venture Capital International (CVCI), the private equity business spun off from Citigroup Inc., has been bitten by the “entrepreneurial bug”. In his first media interview to Mint after stepping down from CVCI last fortnight, Relan discusses the new fund — of between $500-$750 million — that he is going to start, and why he is happy that it comes at a time when stocks at the Bombay Stock Exchange are not at near-25,000 levels.   more »