VCCircle

Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) is forming two joint ventures for hospitality and IT parks with Delhi-based real estate company and tile maker Anant Raj Industries. GIC will hold 49.9 per cent stake in both the ventures, while Anant Raj will hold majority stake, reports The Economic Times.

GIC had last month invested about $105.5 million in Anant Raj to pick up 8.5 per cent stake. The others like Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and George Soros Fund had also invested a combined $61.5 million in the company. GIC is now looking to make further investments into the new joint ventures of Anant Raj which will build hotels and IT parks. ET report says that the hotels JV could be having an equity component anywhere above $150 million depending on how many hotels they want to build. The JV is expected to kick of in the next two months. The infrastructure and IT parks JV may be floated within the next five to six months.

New Lease Of Life

Anant Raj, promoted by Delhi-based business man Ashok Sarin, was incorporated in 1985. It's best known for its Romano Tiles, but went through a rough patch in 1999 when it was declared a sick unit. The company was referred to BIFR (the equivalent of filing for bankruptcy in the US), and IDBI was appointed as the operating agency to devise a rehabilitation scheme. The package was implemented in October 2005. The company has ever since acquired a new lease of life, as it went in for a forward integration into real estate development, along with its original business of basic tile manufacturing business.

Last month, Anant Raj raked in Rs 683 crore ($167 million) by selling 13.5 per cent stake to GIC, George Soros's hedge fund Quantum and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. GIC picked up 3.51 million shares (8.5 per cent stake) for about Rs 432 crore ($104.5 million). Morgan Stanley Dean Witter was allotted 1.36 million shares (3.33 per cent) for Rs 167.93 crore ($41 million), while Quantum bought 0.68 million shares (1.6 per cent) for Rs 83.6 crore ($20.4 million). All the investors bought the shares at Rs 1,229.51 a share on preferential basis. [See the BSE announcement]