ASK Property Investment Advisors launches Rs 1,000 crore real estate fund

NEW DELHI: Ask Property Investment Advisors (ASK PIA), the real estate private equity arm of the ASK group, on Tuesday announced a new real estate-focused fund called  - “ASK Real Estate Special Opportunities Fund - IV” for which it is targeting a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore and an additional Rs 1,500 crore via a greenshoe option.

ASK PIA is looking to raise funds via a mix of offshore and domestic investors that would primarily focus on the affordable & mid-segment residential and mix land-use projects. The fund will focus on job growth corridors across the top 6 cities of India (MMR, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, and Hyderabad). It will also identify projects of reputed developers and provide funding to ensure financial closure for seamless execution and timely completion, ASK PIA said.

Amit Bhagat, CEO & MD, ASK PIA, said, “We will provide early, mid, and last-mile funding for fully approved projects by customer-centric developers with an established delivery track record. We intend to announce the initial close of the fund at Rs 750 crore by September. We currently have a strong pipeline of over Rs 500 crore of investments pre-identified for deployment. We have deployed over Rs 400 crore during the quarter ending Mar-2021.”

Sunil Rohokale, MD & CEO, ASK Group said that the real estate sector has been facing a paucity of capital since the NBFC crisis in 2018, which has been heightened since last year, due to the ongoing pandemic. “On the contrary, sales in the sector have been witnessing green-shoots of revival since H2-FY2021.

We foresee a steady uptick in demand on the back of historically low home loan rates coupled with stamp duty incentives in states like Maharashtra and discounts offered by several developers... Our fund will leverage on the shortage of capital and rising demand to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns,” said Rohokale. Meanwhile, private equity investment inflows into the Indian real estate sector stood at $2.7 billion during the first half of 2021, according to property consultancy firm Savills India.