Real estate investment arm of JP Morgan Chase is likely to pick up about 18 per cent stake in Core Hotels Ventures for Rs 100 crore with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearing the proposal. The proposal of J P Morgan India Property Mauritius Company II will now go to Finance Minister P Chidambaram for final clearance. Core Hotels Ventures is engaged in providing project management and hotel maintenance services. It is also building two hotels in Hyderabad. According to sources, J P Morgan India Property Mauritius Company II has sought approval to subscribe to 1.42 crore share of Rs 10 each of Core Hotels Ventures at a price of Rs 70 per share for a total consideration of about Rs 100 crore. […]

The real estate fund is likely to be in place by March 2009. Walton Street Capital India, the Indian arm of the US-based private equity (PE) real estate investment company, Walton Street Capital, is in the process of raising a country-specific, realty-focused India fund. The fund, whose corpus is expected to be close to $1 billion, is likely to close by March next year, with the first closure expected within the next couple of months. The global PE fund is raising an India-specific, real estate fund for the first time. Walton Street, which had earlier raised a $2.5-billion global fund, had invested a significant part of it in India. Walton Street has investing in the US, Mexico, the EU and India. It has real estate assets worth $14 billion across the globe. […]

After six successful exits in the past year, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India has raised its second growth fund of $725 million (Rs3,168 crore). The firm, that now has two growth and three venture funds in India, will manage a total capital of $1.8 billion. It has at least five more exits lined up through public listing of its portfolio companies. “We expect multiple initial public offerings (IPOs) in the next 12-18 months,” says Sumir Chadha, managing director at Sequoia Capital India. “There is a lot of investor interest and we are not too worried about (market) cycles.” According to the firm, the companies likely to go public are Bharti Telesoft Ltd, AppLabs Technologies Pvt. Ltd, SKS Microfinance Pvt. Ltd, GlobalLogic Inc. and Indecomm Global Services. […]

Mumbai-based venture firm Nexus India Capital closed its second fund at $220 million (about Rs958.8 crore), more than double its first fund of $100 million, becoming the second Indian fund to raise money after the global market meltdown and in the shadow of growing uncertainty over the ability of the Indian economy to continue to expand by at least 8%. In both cases, the money came from limited partners, or institutions that back equity funds, in the US. In February, Helion Venture Partners had raised $210 million for its second fund, mostly from the US backers. “It is a very difficult time to raise money, but there is still a lot of interest in the Indian market, and LPs (limited partners) are looking for strong Indian teams,” said Naren Gupta, managing director, Nexus India Capital. In the months following the meltdown, VC firms had predicted that it would be easier for established global funds to raise capital, than for first-time domestic ones. […]

The ASK group has roped in Sunil Rohokale, MD and CEO of ICICI Home Finance, to head its real estate business. The group is in the process of setting up a real estate private equity fund and real estate advisory services. Mr Rohokale, who was part of the core team that started the mortgage business of ICICI Bank in 1999, is joining as executive director of ASK Investment Holdings which will roll out group’s foray into the real estate sector. The group is planning to launch its first real estate funds within the next three months and is looking to mobilise funds from both domestic as well as overseas investors, said Asit Koticha, chairman, ASK group. In the initial stage, the plan is to set up a Rs 1,000-crore fund and the target is to have a $1-billion fund in 3-4 years, Mr Koticha added. […]