ASK Group to invest Rs. 55 crore in Pune project.

ASK Property Investment Advisors, the real estate private equity arm of the ASK Group, has decided to invest Rs. 55 crore in a new township project of Paranjape Schemes in Bhugaon, Pune. This is the eighth investment from the group's second domestic fund, which was set up in 2012 with a corpus of Rs. 1,000 crore.

The project is spread over 150 acres and will include apartment blocks.

ASK Property Investment Advisors had earlier invested Rs. 40 crore in Paranjape Scheme's Model Colony project, Skyone, in 2012.

Speaking to BusinessLine, Sunil Rohokale, CEO, ASK Group, said: 'We are expecting an incremental rate of return (IRR) of 25 per cent over a five-to-six-year period at the fund level. Of the Rs. 1,000 crore fund, 80 per cent of the fund has been drawn down. We are in negotiations with the developers for the remaining amount and in the next three months, the entire fund should be drawn down.'

In private equity deals, the money committed by limited partners to a private equity fund is usually not invested immediately. It is 'drawn down' and invested over time as investments are identified. 'Our strategy of focusing on the top five cities and working in partnership with reputed developers for multiple opportunities for our various funds will continue,' he added.

The ASK Group currently manages real estate assets of more than Rs. 2,100 crore. The group has raised two domestic funds and an offshore fund amounting to approximately Rs. 1,600 crore and structured debt of close to Rs. 500 crore. It recently announced an investment of Rs. 127 crore in a residential housing project of the ATS Group in Noida, NCR, from its offshore fund.

It has also made two exits: first in ATS - One Hamlet in Noida, at an IRR of 54 per cent and a multiple of 2.45 over two years, and from Liviano, a project by Darode Jog Properties in Pune, at an IRR of 30 per cent and a multiple of 2.35 in three years. Both these exits are from the first domestic fund launched by the ASK Group in 2009.


HBL