ASK Property Investment Advisors, the real estate private equity arm of the ASK group has announced the launch of a new real estate-focussed 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, the company said in a statement. The fund will identify projects of reputed developers and provide funding to ensure financial closure for seamless execution and timely completion.
The fund is in line with ASK’s focus on affordable and mid-segment residential and mixed land-use projects. The fund will focus on job growth corridors across the top six cities of India (MMR, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, and Hyderabad).
“This fund’s strategy is a mirror image of our fully deployed previous fund. 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,” said Amit Bhagat, CEO and MD, ASK PIA.
“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,” said Sunil Rohokale, MD and CEO, ASK Group.
“Our fund will leverage on the shortage of capital and rising demand to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns,” he added.
