UK-based real estate fund Trinity Capital Plc sold its stake in Kapstone Constructions Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary firm of Mumbai-based developer Keystone Realtors Pvt. Ltd, as part of a strategy to make profitable exits from investments in India.
Trinity Capital has sold the 16% holding for about £12.6 million (around Rs.90 crore), the fund has said in a statement. This is Trinity Capital’s first exit this year.
Keystone Realtors chairman and managing director Boman Irani said that the company has acquired the stake back from Trinity Capital, through a ‘buyback’.
AIM-listed Trinity Capital had picked up the stake in Kapstone, which is developing a 127-acre integrated township in Thane, for £10.6 million in 2006.
Trinity Capital’s India portfolio, which is estimated at $230 million (around Rs.1,025 crore), is managed by Ajay Piramal-backed Indiareit Fund Advisors Pvt. Ltd. Indiareit replaced Trikona Advisors Ltd as the fund manager last year and was given the mandate to exit all investments in India quickly and profitably.
“The strategy, going forward, will be to continue to make profitable exits and higher realizations from the present net asset value and to optimize maximum value for shareholders,” said Ramesh Jogani, Indiareit Fund’s chief executive and managing director.
Trinity Capital has also invested in a Keystone Realtor project at Bandra in suburban Mumbai.
“Trinity should exit from the Bandra project sometime soon, through a buy-back route,” said Irani.
Referring to the Kapstone deal, he said, “It was a win-win situation for us because while the fund exited the project profitably, we bought back the stake through internal accruals in the project.”
Trinity Capital has been scouting for exit opportunities in India for a while. In 2010, it sold its stake in Pipavav Shipyard Ltd, four years after it invested in the company. It exited its investment in DB Hospitality Pvt. Ltd, a group company of DB Realty Ltd, the same year.
Real estate analysts said that funds that made large investments in projects between 2005 and 2007 have been looking for exits after the mandatory lock-in period got over.
“While exits in real estate will happen this year, there is a lot of pressure on funds to return money and therefore, in some cases, exits may happen even at a lesser return or at a discount,” said Rajiv Sahani, partner, real estate practice, Ernst and Young.
There were a total of eight exits in the real estate space at a total value Edge, which tracks investment of $1182.57 million in 2010, according to VC activity. In 2011, so far, there have been eight exits, though the value of these transactions was not available.
Source: Livemint