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Real estate fund Yatra Capital has invested €6.75 million ($9.18 million) in its 50-50 joint venture with Modi Build-Well Ltd in Gujarat. The joint venture will develop a 590,000 sq ft shopping mall in the city of Bhavnagar. This is Yatra's fifth investment in Indian real estate, and it has so far invested €79.32 million in India from its €100 million fund raised in December 2006.

In June, the Euronext-listed real estate investment fund acquired a 24 per cent stake in a joint venture promoted by Ashok Ruia Enterprises Pvt Ltd (AREPL) to develop a 1.5 million sq feet shopping centre, Market City, in Pune. Yatra invested €17.24 million ($23.5 million) in this project.

Before this, Yatra had invested €3.73 million ($5 million) in the Mumbai-based Phoenix Mills Ltd, another JV of AREPL. It has also invested €21.6 million to pick 49 per cent holding in Pune's Kolte Patil Developers, among others.

Yatra Capital, an India-focussed real estate investment company, raised €100 million ($136 million) from the Euronext exchange in Amsterdam in December last year. It's founded by ex-HSBC executive Ajoy Veer Kapoor and Rohin Shah, and backed by investors like Morley Fund Management, Fortis Investments and Standard Life, Yatra was the first Indian real estate company to list in Euronext stock exchange of Amsterdam. The fund's focus is to invest in tier II and tier III cities of India, which will invest through Saffron Capital Advisors, an asset management advisory firm.

Hindustan Times adds: Yatra's MD Ajoy Veer Kapoor told HT that the fund is planning to raise another $600 million to invest in India. "We are going to raise $200 million soon. We will be raising another $200 million for the hospitality sector and a $200 million more for the warehousing and storage sector. In 12 months, we will be investing over $1 billion in various real estate projects.” The company is also planning to raise a domestic fund of Rs 300 crore ($75 million).